As a historian, one can say without a doubt, that the structures of families in Europe in the twentieth century have dramatically changed. The close connection between family and education/training is obvious and has immediate effects on the results of education and vocational training while adjustments to the structures in the educational field clearly lag behind. New disadvantages are the result and need to be pointed out in the interest of the aspiration for equality of opportunities in the educational system.

Half of the European population in 1914 was still involved in agriculture (in the Habsburgian monarchy this figure was above 50%, in Western Europe below and in Eastern Europe it was far above this). Away from urban centers there existed specific frames of socialization which, although not able to be generalized, normally had the following criteria:

1. Religiously standardized system of rules and regulations
2. Greater common forms of living together, across generations and socially differenciated
3. A connection between the social situation and the number of children (limitations concerning marriage etc.)
4. Younger children were also living in the family unit
5. School education interrupted by economic needs (harvest, way to school in the winter, etc)
6. Little social permeability, not even through education (exception: religious professions)

Today the actual situation of families is basically different.

1. Today the majority of the European population lives in urban centers or at least in densified settlements
2. Generally a nucleus family of 4 persons is living together
3. The numbers of singles and single parents are rising constantly
4. Educational needs must be more and more socialized (day-care, kindergardens, etc)
5. Religious and other patterns of orientation have lost their meaning

If we postulate the goal, that the educational system must be permeable, guarantee equal opportunities and should permit social improvements, then certain claims on the political decision-makers must be made based on the dramatic changes in the primary socialization within the last decades.

1. Decisions for a certain form of education must not become a one-way street. Changes from one form to another and a later reentry must be possible.
2. Education should not fail due to language-barriers or available "blocks of time", meaning multi-linguality in a mobile society, "open-university"- offerings via media etc, weekend and evening courses, child-care etc, must be made available
3. The use of de-centralized possibilities (Internet) to overcome regional disadvantages
4. Extra courses for the better understanding of Europe and its diversity within the mandatory schools
5. Plurality in religious education

Helmut Konrad is a historian and dean at the University of Graz. He was born in 1948 and studied History, Philosophy and Literature at the University of Vienna. From 1972 to 1981 he was Assistant Professor of History at the University of Linz. After his habilitation at that same university in 1980, he became Professor of Modern and Contemporary History there. From 1984 to 1989 he was Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Graz, to which post he was re-elected in 1992, having spent 1990/91 as Visiting Professor at Cornelle University, Ithaca, N.Y. From 1993 to 1997 he was Rector of the University of Graz. In 1995 he became Vice President of the Austrian Rectors Conference.

Furthermore, Helmut Konrad is director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cultural History, Linz-Graz, as well as President of the International Conference of Historians of the Labor Movement (ITH). He is member of the Board of Austriaca, Paris, and of the Austrian History Yearbook, Minneapolis. He is editor of the "Kulturstudien" bei Böhlau, Köln-Wien and of "Böhlaus zeitgeschichtliche Bibliothek," Köln-Wien.

He has published 7 books and 170 articles and was editor for 35 publications. He has been awarded the Theodor Körner Price and the Victor Adler Price.

Helmut Konrad is member of the Board of Directors of the International Peace College Vienna.