ABSTRACT
The evidence of lack of equality of educational opportunity as Western Europe entered the decade of the 1960s is overwhelming, as common observation no less than sociological studies showed. The economic argument has also influenced the doctrine of equality of opportunity in another way. The functionalist sociology that seemed to legitimize equality of opportunity has also been challenged by neo- Marxists who do not believe that it is an attainable goal in a capitalist society. The postulate that prosperity was dependent upon educational expansion was launched by Schultz with his celebrated paper on "human capital" in 1960. The political mood of disillusion that followed the initiation of the drastic educational reforms of the 1960s set in gradually. Teachers have been vilified, and educational cuts produce nothing but muted reproaches all over Western Europe.
