There was no school as such in the "Eßweiler Tal" in the 16th century, but it is clear that children were being taught by clergymen. This was a job to which the clergymen were not strongly drawn, for their dwellings – where they would have had to hold lessons – were quite small and in the summertime they had to work the parish plot. In the late 16th century, though, the call to education was roused by the spread of humanistic and reform-minded ideas. A 1572 document hints at the existence of a school in Eßweiler. In 1604, the Eßweiler parishioners sent a petitionary letter to the lord who was responsible, namely Duke Johannes II (“the Young”), asking for a Latin school to be established. The Duke answered the request with a decree on 31 May 1604. The resulting Latin school was, however, lost in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). Theodor Zink reports of a Greek inscription on the arch above the doorway of the former parish cellar; it was apparently still preserved as late as 1818. After the ravages of the Great War, Eßweiler may have got a new school, but whatever the truth, teachers’ names are known from this time. During the 20th century, there was a two-stream primary school in Eßweiler, which in the beginning was housed at the old schoolhouse on the street “Im Läppchen”.