Trends in educational fluidity after the fall of socialism in the Czech Republic.

The aim of this paper is to identify the trends in educational fluidity after the fall of socialism in 1989 in the Czech Republic. The data are based on 27 sample surveys carried out from 1990 to 2009, including information on the child’s and his father’s education. The trends in educational fluidity are analysed both in view of the years and with respect to the birth cohorts, i.e. on the grounds of two effects: unequal educational odds (according to the socio-economic origin) and the “differentiation” effect. Unequal educational odds are related to the expansion of the Czech education system while the differentiation effect is given by social homogeneity of educational groups. The findings show that despite expansion of educational opportunities the fluidity in education has not been increasing in Czech society. The period between 1990 and 2005 saw even a decline in educational odds depending on the respondents’ educational origin. Only from 2006, this tendency started to fall. In our view, the development of educational fluidity was caused primarily by socio-political transition of Czech society rather than by cohort replacement.