The Sumerian term for a school where scribes learned to read and write was edubba.
The word edubba is commonly translated as “tablet house.” These institutions trained scribes, chiefly by having students copy cuneiform signs, vocabulary lists, model contracts, mathematical exercises, and literary compositions onto clay tablets.
Scribal education was essential to Mesopotamian administration because temples, palaces, and businesses depended on written records. Students typically progressed from practicing individual signs and word lists to producing more complex legal, economic, and literary texts. Much of what is known about Sumerian language and literature survives because of this educational tradition.
An edubba was not necessarily identical to a modern public school. Training was closely connected with the professional scribal world, and surviving sources often present demanding lessons and strict teacher-student relationships. The term should also not be confused with an e-kur, a temple or shrine associated with the god Enlil.