History education can be excessively biased in favour of a eurocentric or Western focus in not just European and other Western countries, but also in the developing world. This is at the detriment of the valuable experiences and significances that non-European based history offer. Non-European history should also be include, or represented more in education curricula. This will help to broaden students' appreciation of non-European based cultures.
In November 1994, a USA federal education panel announced new world-history standards (that are voluntary) for the country, The standards also emphasize non-European historical hallmarks such as China's powerful Sung dynasty, which developed paper currency, gunpowder and wood-block book printing from the 10th to the 13th Century, the Mauryan Empire in India, and the Olmec civilization, which influenced the Zapotec and Mayan civilizations in Mesoamerica. The new world-history standards divide human history into eight eras and seek to focus on developments that affected large numbers of people and had broad significance for later generations.