In 1965 Mr. Raymond Poignant published a comparative study, entitled "Education in the Common Market Countries", of the organi­ sation and state of development of education in the six countries of the Community and in three industrialised countries: the United States, the United Kingdom and the USSR. Mr. Poignant, at present Director of the International Institute for Educational Planning (UNESCO), compiled the material for this study when he was Chairman of a committee set up by the EEC Institute for University Studies. Since then it has become a reference work for all those who wish to understand the similarities and the diversity of our educational systems; it has been translated into German and English. In the preface to the first edition we expressed the wish that this work of comparative analysis should be pursued and kept up-to-date. This wish is fulfilled in the work we are now introducing, and which was undertaken by Mr. Poignant pursuant to an agreement between the European Cultural Foundation and the International Institute for Educational Planning. It should be emphasised that this is not simply a revised edition of the previous work. The scope of the book has been enlarged, and Japan and Sweden are now included in the list of countries examined; more­ over the perspective is different.