Abstract:

The Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training highlights that education development must aim to ensure the fulfillment of all citizens. As stated by Camanho et al. (2022), a critical challenge for EU countries remains to ensure equity in education and training across the EU space. The score in international assessments such as PISA and TIMSS are the most widely used performance indicators in country-level comparisons. As Thieme et al. (2012) stated that it is not enough to consider the educational achievement of students as result variables because relative success is associated with the provision of an equitable system that provides similar opportunities for all students.

Performance assessment of education systems, which includes indicators that reflect educational equity, is the latest in the benchmarking literature (Stumbriene et al., 2022). This research can enhance the literature by proposing a new way to assess educational equity related to social categories such as social class and gender. In the field of education, the inclusion of social class and gender indicators in comparative analysis is a common practice. Studies in the field of education have measured the literacy gap and inequality of access related to social class and gender. This research conducts a comparative investigation of educational equity in compulsory education using composite indicators that allow comparing educational equity from a social class and gender perspective in post-socialist and old-democracy EU member states, without losing its multidimensional nature and respecting the particularities of the national education system.

Composite indicators allow measuring processes as a whole, whereas individual indicators only describe various aspects of multidimensional processes. This technique can be used to monitor the impact of national policies on education systems and guide public policy discussions. From a methodological point of view, the mathematical model based on optimization methods – Benefit of the Doubt – might be used to measure a multidimensional process that cannot be captured by a single indicator. The objective of this research is to assess the educational equity in European countries from a social class and gender perspective in compulsory education. The current study uses annual data of 29 European countries, collected from IEA and OECD databases.

A heterogeneous situation is observed in terms of educational equity in European countries. The empirical findings of the current study indicate that exist significant differences between old-democracy and post-socialist European countries. The results signal that countries should review their policies of striving for equity to secure education opportunities for all citizens. The results of this study will allow the redistribution of efforts/resources to where they are most needed to reach the outcomes envisaged, giving due attention to the relevant segments of society. This study intends to contribute to the aim of The Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training to ensure the fulfillment of all citizens through the development of an innovative way to evaluate educational equity given its multidimensional nature.

Acknowledgment:
This project has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement No S-PD-22-87.

References:
[1] Camanho et al. (2022): DOI 10.1016/j.ejor.2022.05.048
[2] Stumbriene et al. (2022): DOI 10.1016/j.seps.2022.101293
[3] Thieme et al. (2012): DOI 10.1007/s12564-011-9177-6

Keywords:

Equity, gender, social class, multidimensional analysis, compulsory education, European countries.