Journal Article

MOORA-Based Assessment of Educational Sustainability Performance in EU-27 Countries: Comparing Pre-Pandemic Periods

Muntean, Raul-Ioan, Stefanica, Valentina, Azaiez, Fairouz, Belhouchet, Hatem, Khatrouch, Ikram, Dergaa, Ismail, Ceylan, Halil Ibrahim

2025

Overview

(1) Background: Educational systems across the world experienced significant changes during 2020–2022, with potential implications for progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4: Quality Education), which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all across European Union member states. Understanding how educational sustainability performance evolved during the pre-pandemic period (2017–2019) and the pandemic-affected period (2020–2022) is essential for developing effective educational policies. (2) Objective: This quantitative comparative study aimed to (i) assess and rank sustainable education developments across EU-27 countries in two periods, Period 1—the pre-pandemic period (2017–2019)—and Period 2—the pandemic-affected period (2020–2022); (ii) identify performance changes between these periods; and (iii) classify countries into performance groups to guide targeted interventions. (3) Methods: Using data from the Eurostat database, we evaluated six key SDG 4 indicators: low-achieving students in reading, mathematics, and science; participation in early childhood education; early school leavers; tertiary educational attainment; adult participation in learning; and adults with basic digital skills. The Multiobjective Optimization based on Ratio Analysis (MOORA) method was used to rank countries and assess sustainable education development. (4) Results: Sweden maintained the highest educational sustainability performance across both periods, while Romania and Bulgaria consistently ranked lowest. Nine countries improved their rankings during the pandemic-affected period, while others maintained stable positions or experienced declines in their rankings. Adult participation in learning showed the greatest variation among the indicators, with top performers, such as Sweden, scoring 0.445 compared to Romania’s 0.051 in Period 2. The proportion of early school leavers decreased from an EU average of 9.0% in Period 1 to 8.3% in Period 2, indicating a positive trend across the study periods. While differences were observed across countries and periods, these should not be interpreted as causally linked to the pandemic alone (5). Conclusions: The performance of educational sustainability varied across EU member states between the two periods, with some countries demonstrating remarkable resilience or improvement, while others declined. These findings underscore the need for targeted educational policies that address specific sustainability weaknesses in individual countries, particularly those in the warning and danger categories. Sweden’s consistent performance offers valuable lessons for educational sustainability, especially during and after major disruptions.

• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Subject: 21st century AD / Economic aspects / Educational aspects / Environmental aspects / Mathematical optimization / Multiple criteria decision making / Sustainable development