Chapter 3: Tuning Secondary Education

Education is one of the most controversial issues in Europe. Reforms can have major short-term budgetary effects and a strong influence on longer-term growth and inequality trends. This chapter reviews differences across Europe in the orientation of curricula, in school autonomy and private education, and in teacher management, with a special focus on the secondary education level. It interprets current reform tensions and asks whether and how country-level policy choices may benefit from supranational EU-level coordination.