Estonian students: the smartest in money matters
Estonian students are the smartest in money matters!
Text: Heli Lehtsaar-Karma,
Photo credit: Marlene Leppänen, pexels.com
The results of the global PISA financial literacy assessment of students reveal that Estonian students ranked 1st among the 20 countries participating in the assessment.
OECD released the data about PISA 2018 results regarding knowledge, skills and attitudes towards financial topics of 15-year olds in 20 countries on May 7th. Almost all (95%) of 15-year-old students in Estonia have basic knowledge of money matters.
Estonian students had the highest mean score of 547 points among all participating countries. Estonian results were followed by students from Finland (537 points) and Canadian provinces (532 points). OECD mean score was 505 points.
It’s worth to point out that financial knowldege of young people in Estonia depend very little on the socioeconomic backgrounds of their families and schools. Moreover, there is little difference between boys and girls and between young people living in cities vs those living in rural areas. However, there is a difference in performance between schools with Estonian as the language of instruction and Russian medium schools – students of Russian medium schools had somewhat lower results.
Minister of Education and Research Mailis Reps said in the press release that the national economy and people’s continued well-being will largely depend on the financial decisions of today’s youngsters make in the years to come. “It is important to support our students’ initiative, for example, establishing student companies, that provide them with important skills and experiences already in school. Our 15-year-olds are very bright and we must be thankful for those who also support them – teachers, families, entrepreneurs and others,” she added.
More information about PISA results in Estonia is available here https://www.innove.ee/en/news/estonian-students-come-first-in-pisa-2018-financial-literacy-assessment/.
Thorough information from OECD is available here
http://www.oecd.org/finance/financial-education/launch-pisa-financial-literacy-results-2018.htm.