Slovak 15-year-old Pupils below OECD Average in Financial Literacy
Bratislava, May 24 (TASR) – Slovak pupils are below the average in OECD countries in terms of financial literacy, according to the results of the 2015 PISA financial literacy assessment of 15-year-old students that was released by the Education, Science, Research and Sport Ministry on Wednesday.
Slovakia scored 445 points, while the OECD average was 489. Chinese pupils topped the list by scoring 566 points. Of the 15 participating countries, only pupils from Chile, Peru and Brazil posted worse performances than Slovak students.
In comparison with the PISA financial literacy assessment in 2012, when Slovakia participated in the tests for the first time, Slovak pupils posted a significant drop in performance of 25 points in 2015.
“Compared to the previous cycle, we recorded a statistically significant drop in the performance of Slovak boys [by 36 points], while the performance of girls was comparable in both cycles (with a statistically insignificant drop of 14 points),” said the Education Ministry.
The 2015 PISA study further revealed that more than one third (34.7 percent) of Slovak pupils are low performers in financial literacy and thus belong to the so-called risk group. “This means that 34.7 percent of our pupils aren’t able to solve and apply in practice issues and problems concerning financial matters. Moreover, the proportion of Slovak pupils in the risk group is 12.4-percent higher than the OECD average,” stated the ministry.
Conversely, 6.3 percent of Slovak 15-year-old pupils are top performers in financial literacy, but the proportion of Slovakia’s top performers is 5.5 percentage points lower than the OECD average.
A total of 15 countries around the world voluntarily participated in the 2015 PISA financial literacy assessment of 15-year-old pupils. OECD countries were represented by Australia, Belgium (the Flemish community), Canada, Chile, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and the USA, while five so-called partner countries took part: Brazil, China, Lithuania, Peru and Russia.
Slovakia took part in the OECD’s PISA financial literacy assessment for the second time by testing a selected sample of 1,540 15-year-olds from 292 schools across the country. The test was carried out by the National Institute for Certified Measurements in Education (NUCEM) between April 20-30, 2015.
