Education can play an important role in making European societies fairer and more inclusive. To accomplish this, education systems must ensure that all young people are able to develop their talents and achieve their full potential regardless of their background. However, socio-economic background continues to be a strong determinant of student attainment: underperformance, leaving education or training early, and social exclusion are still very real dangers for some students. The on-going COVID-19 crisis reinforces the case for improving equity in education as the shift to distance learning and the loss of teaching time bring increased challenges for disadvantaged students and are likely to compound existing inequalities.