Ramanan, in Sankarachaaryar's "Deivathin Kural'- there's a pretty detailed description of education in ancient times. Yep, 'I believe 'gurukula vaasam' was the norm those days...Paranjyothi himself jouneys to Kanchi to study in one such 'Madam', doesn't he?
Appar (when he went under the name of Dharmasenar.)himself went to school in one of the 'kadigai's of Thiruppaathiripuliyoor(yes, yes, a suburb of today's Cuddalore).
There are even records of more than 7000 students, living and studying under the same roof! (stone inscription in Thiruvallam).
And there's also an inscription from Rajendra Chola's period, of a kadikai in "Venbathoor'- Chozha Naadu.
I guess there were plenty of oppos to learn, in those times:-)
Like Sridhar said, Poonghuzhali probably learned to row a boat at a very young age- kulathozhil. She obviously must have had a lot of practice to have rowed VD to Ilankai:-)
I think education those days was not formalized or institutionalized and confined to gurukula system alone. Social education aimed at the inculcation of good manners and social etiquette and the home was the best training ground for these. Probably parental upbringing constituted the full education, because education was mostly a training in the hereditary vocation. Learning was not separated from doing and the family was the first gurukulam / school imparting education to the children. and probably it was open to all irespective of caste or creed. the sangam age in tamil nad is probably the best example for this . Maths & astronomy was one of the areas where dravidians excelled. the elders in the house were the first gurus and children learned a lot by just oservin ghtem.
Further the spead of Buddhism and Jainsm also helped people broaden their vision and people did learn from other relegions as well.
apart from formal eduation i think ther was great emphasis on art and culture else we would have had so many sangams in our tamil histroy.
Unless there had been formal education systems where people were tought basics of what we call modern engineering and physics i think it wouldn't have been possible for the to construct such huge temples like Tanjai Periya Kovil, Kanchipuram etc. all these neede meticulous planning and application.