Context

Cross-country reports show that, on average, EU citizens have inadequate levels of Financial Literacy (FinLit). Across EU member states, FinLit competencies level vary from 71% to 13%

(European Banking Federation, 2020)

This translates in insufficient knowledge of basic financial concepts, resulting in poor financial strategies and decisions, such as:

  • Bad allocation of lifetime resources;
  • Low planning and saving;
  • Low awareness in terms of borrowing decisions;
  • Higher risk of indebtedness.

The teaching of FinLit since early ages becomes essential to counteract the diffusion of such ineffective and dangerous habits among young people. However, many EU Member States do not teach FinLit before secondary education. In addition, although it has already been put in place national strategies to address the teaching of FinLit, these strategies often give considerable discretion as to whether and how to incorporate this subject into lessons, creating a wide gap among EU states.

Unfortunately, it also appears that teachers are lacking adequate competencies to FinLit, as proved by several self-efficacy studies (Harrison et al, 2019; De Moor and Verschetze, 2017).

Finally, different researches clearly demonstrate the important role that parents play in determining not just FinLit competencies of their children, but also their interests, behaviours and attitudes towards money. A 2018 PISA survey shows higher proficiency in FinLit among 15 years old students that have been taught or given financial responsibilities by their parents. Increasing parents’ involvement into the education of their sons and daughter is pivotal to improve the efficacy of schools teaching.

Project period: 01.02.2022 – 31.01.2024

Project ID: 2021-1-LT01-KA220-SCH-000034366

Erasmus+ program: KA220 – Cooperation partnerships in school education

Target groups: Primary and early secondary education teachers, students, parents

Stakeholders: Public authorities, education experts, researchers, school staff

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