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Describes the educational qualifications of young people entering European labour markets as the key individual determinant of successful school-to-work transitions. It analyses the institutional and structural factors that have led to differences between the various European countries in the scope and nature of educational expansion in recent decades. The chapter gives a detailed account of the changes in educational attainment in the various countries of Europe and shows, that although levels of education have risen tremendously in all European countries, considerable cross-national differences have remained, both with respect to levels of education and, more importantly, with respect to the different emphasis placed on general education vs vocational training.

This chapter brings to the fore the socio-political processes that have shaped educational development among the Muslims in both colonial and post-colonial times. It is argued in this chapter that while socio-political processes exerted an overbearing influence on educational development among Muslims during the colonial period, participation of Muslims in the colonial education system was, however, deeply spatially entrenched. Even as the Muslim community as a whole appeared to lag behind other communities, its educational status in many situations was much better than other communities. A similar kind of spatiality in educational development among Muslims is also seen in the present context. It thus suggests that relative educational backwardness of the Muslim community has to be understood in terms of spatially embedded historical trajectories that have shaped educational development in India.

This chapter begins with the comparative analysis of the politics of educational reform in the two states Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. An element of ‘control’ can be assumed in the Indian federal system in terms of the same policy and institutional support from the Centre as an incentive for educational reform in both states. Besides, these states also had remarkable similarities of social context and a new political leadership from amongst the socially disadvantaged castes in the early 1990s. In the literature in policy reforms, these initial conditions are assumed as favourable for policy reforms. Bur data on educational participation show that while Andhra narrowed social inequities of caste and gender, in Bihar there was an increase. The contrasting performance of the two states appears as a puzzle. Why should two educationally backward states, with similar federal support report divergent outcomes? What is the role of politics in the course of programme implementation, as an intermediate variable between policy input from the Centre and policy outcomes?

There was great progress in increasing participation rates in secondary and tertiary education post-war, as there was in Britain’s peer countries. There was also an increase in the proportion of the age group achieving qualifications such as GCSEs but many doubts have been raised about the comparability of these qualifications over time. Independent studies of reading and literacy suggest that progress was positive but slow, while independent cross-national studies show that average test scores of British schoolchildren did not progress any faster than in peer countries. It is doubtful therefore whether educational reforms have made much difference. However, education also contributes to the empowerment of a country’s citizens and to values and behaviours such as tolerance and healthy lifestyles, and educational expansion has contributed to social progress in this way.