Contextualizing Triple Bottom Line Sustainability Assessment in Secondary Education: A Rapid Appraisal from the Global South

Elis Rosliani (), Didin Muhafidin, Budiman Rusli and Asep Sumaryana
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Elis Rosliani: Graduate Program in Administrative Science, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung 40135, Indonesia
Didin Muhafidin: Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, Sumedang 45363, Indonesia
Budiman Rusli: Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, Sumedang 45363, Indonesia
Asep Sumaryana: Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran, Sumedang 45363, Indonesia

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: Most studies on educational sustainability focus on higher education institutions, while secondary schools, especially in the Global South, are still rarely researched. This study evaluates the sustainability performance of SMAN 21 Bekasi, a public school in urban Indonesia, by adapting the triple bottom line (TBL) framework through a quantitative rapid appraisal (RAP) approach. A total of 105 school stakeholders, consisting of teachers, principals, students, and school committees, assessed the performance based on economic, social, and environmental dimensions. The results showed that the social dimension achieved a moderately sustainable score of 62.57, while the environmental dimension scored 54.56, and the economic dimension scored only 41.46, indicating low sustainability performance. This finding challenges the assumption in the previous literature that sustainability models developed in higher education can be directly applied in secondary schools, especially in the context of educational institutions in the Global South that face various structural limitations such as lack of autonomy, access to resources, and basic infrastructure. This study offers an adaptive and contextual sustainability evaluation model based on RAP-TBL, which can be used for benchmarking between schools, as well as extending theoretical and practical contributions in the framework of sustainable education towards achieving SDG 4 and SDG 12.

Keywords: education sector sustainability; triple bottom line; rapid appraisal; secondary schools; Global South (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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