Education in Mongolia traditionally was controlled by the Buddhist monasteries and was limited to monks. Tibetan was the language of instruction, the canonical and liturgical language, and it was used at the lower levels of education. Higher-level education was available in the major monasteries, and often many years were required to complete formal degrees, which included training in logic and debate. With the exception of medicine, which involved an considerable pharmacopoeia and training in herbal medicines, higher education was esoteric and unworldly. Major monasteries supported four colleges: philosophy, doctrine, and protocol; medicine; mathematics, astrology, and divination; and demonology and demon suppression. In the early twentieth century, officials and wealthy families hired tutors for their children, and government offices operated informal apprenticeships that taught the intricacies of written records, standard forms, and accounting. Official Mongolian sources, which tended to depict the prerevolutionary time as one of total backwardness, likely underaround the level of literacy, but it was undoubtedly low.

In 1985 Mongolia had more than 900 general education schools, 40 vocational schools, 28 specialized secondary schools, 1 university, and 7 institutes. The general schools listed 435,900 students; vocational schools, 27,700; specialized secondary schools, 23,000; and higher education, 24,600. Women made up 63 % of all students in higher education, and girls constituted 58 % of students in specialized secondary schools. Women were 67 % of all teachers in general schools, 50 % of teachers in specialized secondary schools, and 33 % of higher education faculty. In 1985 kindergartens, serving families in which both parents worked full time, listed 20 % of the children who were three to seven years old.Education in Mongolia is compulsory between the ages of 8 and 16. In the 1996 school year 234,200 students attended primary school, 89 % of primary-aged children. The secondary school enrollment rate was 56 %. About 38,600 students attended institutions of higher education, which include the Mongolian State University in Ulaanbaatar.