Construction of European education policy: One size fits all?

Quality education is a key driver of social progress and economic growth, as well as ensuring sustainable demographic development. European Commission’s frameworks are the outcome of the continuous construction of European cooperation in education and reinforcing these fundamental values. Although almost a quarter of a century has passed since the European Union (EU) started to implement strategic frameworks and develop a common education policy for all the member states, a heterogeneous situation is still observed between European countries. Due to noticeable social and economic disparities, EU countries are often categorised as “old” and “new” member states. However, differences exist not only between groups but also within each group. Nevertheless, the European Commission’s frameworks, which define the direction of education policy development, set common goals for all member states. This study seeks to reveal education policy differences among EU member states. For this purpose, the most suitable strategy towards the European Commission’s vision has been identified for each EU country, considering their unique social, economic, and cultural situation. Benchmarking methods can help to set different strategies to improve national performance toward the vision. The proposed benchmarking approach, through Data Envelopment Analysis, is used to assess European countries' performance. However, country-level analyses can mask significant sociodemographic and territorial disparities by averaging out the lower scores in some regions with higher scores in others. Therefore, incorporating internationally comparable data that reflect regional differences in education is essential. In light of regional differentials, the paper demonstrates that a one-size-fits-all approach is not the most suitable way to move towards the European Commission’s vision. Instead, a way to identify different strategies to improve national performance in a region-specific way has been proposed. This study embodies an interdisciplinary approach by integrating educational effectiveness theory, demography, and operational research perspectives. Its findings can support the development of interventions aligned with regional demographic and economic characteristics. From a policy perspective, moving towards the vision of a framework should not be followed by a one-size-fits-all approach but rather by identifying the most suitable strategy for each country in a region-specific way. Acknowledgment. This project was funded by the European Union (project No S-PD-24-183) under the agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT).