REGIONAL DIMENSION OF SCHOOL DROPOUT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION - A CLUSTER ANALYSIS

Dropouts are not only a weakness and a threat level of any human community. Due to the importance of reducing or even eliminating it, the main objectives of the European Commission's education policies include prevention of early school leaving. A comparative analysis of school drop-out in European Union countries highlights the fact that it is not uniform but shows wide variations from country to country and even from region to region. The aim of the paper is to identify different macro-regions developed within the EU28 according to the level and dynamics of school abandonment in the year 2016. The research method used was the cluster analysis with the help of which seven clusters were identified in terms of dropout