The human primary education at the contemporary times is characteristic of basis, popularity, ethnicity, etatism and so on. These characteristics have made the contemporary primary education maintain its own unique values in the course of constant reforms. With the development of the western primary education as its foundation, the modern primary education has taken its shape and shown some of the characteristics of the contemporary primary education in its development. Therefore, there is a need to fully discuss the characteristics of the contemporary primary education before we can gain a real understanding of the features and values of the modern primary education. As far as the features of the western modern primary education are concerned, there has been a lack of systematic and specialized research. So, it is of utmost importance to explore the topic when the current reform in primary education is turning up.This dissertation discusses the characteristics of the western contemporary primary education ranging in time from the 15th century to 19th century. The characteristics concerned mainly fall into three pairs: religiousness and charitableness; ethnicity and etatism; compulsiveness and popularity. The three pairs of characteristics weighed different and interrelated with each other in the different periods of the western primary education development. The 15th and 16th century was the "prelude" to the contemporary times. Within the period of time, the western primary education started under the influence and push of the Renaissance and religious reform, with the symbol of native language school establishment. The native language used in the primary schools represented the ethnicity of the western primary education of the times. In the 17th century, the western society was in repetitive conflicts with theology in terms of ideology and spirit and as a result the primary education was under the control of churches, thus showing religiousness and charitableness with its education goals, contents and textbooks characteristic of religion. The 18th century was a crucial period in which the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution caused the great change in the western world. With the further development of the industries, the number of poor people was increasing and the education of a large number of poor children presented a hard task to the society. For the sake of charity, many primary education institutions were established to meet sucha demand. So in the west, the primary education was also called the education of the poor characteristic of charity. In another development, the enlightenment in France intensified the national and ethnic conceptions. The 19th century was a prime period for the development of capitalist societies in Europe and America. The primary education was showing stronger ethnicity, etatism and popularity while losing religiousness and charitableness. Primary education came into a state institution sponsored by governments and its goals have changed into training nationals and citizens. In UK, France, Germany and America, national primary education systems were established and public schools were set up, thus showing its etatism. Laws or acts regarding primary education were adopted and enforced in the second half of the 19th century, showing its compulsiveness.The dissertation falls into four chapters to analyze and discusses the abovementioned characteristics of the western primary education in its development.The first chapter chiefly analyzes and illustrates the start of the western primary education. It is divided into two sections. One is the factor analysis of the start of the primary education and the other is the description of the establishment of native language schools, a symbol of the coming of the western contemporary primary education. With the rise of the ethnic and national awareness of European countries and the upsurge of religious reforms as well as the development of the townspeople status based on native language and culture in the 15th and 16th century, th