Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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99. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the provision for the teaching of financial literacy for school children and adults outside of the formal education system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19238/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Primary Curriculum

Financial literacy is mainly explored through mathematics though there are some elements of it in SESE. Examples of other resources available on Scoilnet include:

In Mathematics in primary level, students learn to calculate length, area, weight, capacity, time and money in the Measures strand of the curriculum. The Number strand includes computational skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, fractions, percentages and basic equations. In the infant classes, pupils are encouraged to engage in shopping activities which involve recognising and using coins, comparing prices and calculating change. By 6th class, they should be able to use appropriate tools to estimate and measure, to compare value for money, to calculate prices such as 10% discount, 20% VAT etc., to convert into other currencies and to solve simple problems.

Post Primary Curriculum

- Financial literacy as a language is intrinsic in business subjects.

- Business Studies in junior cycle, taken by approximately 60% of students, is very much grounded in financial literacy

- Presently approximately 9% of senior cycle students take Economics, 30% take Business and 10% take Accounting. Each subject at senior cycle has various nuances in terms of the approach taken to financial literacy. Accounting in grounded in practical Accounting concept and procedures, Business looks at the relevance of finance to business enterprises and individual households and Economics take a societal view of the supply and demand for resources which includes finance.

Junior Cycle

Statement of Learning 14 in the Framework for Junior Cycle () states that the student

Makes informed financial decisions and develops good consumer skills

Financial literacy is accessed through different subject areas. Mathematics is a compulsory pathway whereas subjects like Business Studies and Home Economics are optional pathways.

Junior Cycle Mathematics

The revised Junior Cycle syllabus exposes the students to a range of topics relating to financial literacy:

- In Junior Certificate, students learn about:

- Solving problems involving mobile phone tariffs, currency transactions, shopping (bills), Value Added Tax and meter readings

- Making value judgements for money calculations (expenditure and savings)

- Using ratio and proportion to conduct currency calculations.

- More specifically students should be able to:

- (At Ordinary Level and Higher Level) Solve problems involving profit and loss; %profit (on the cost price), Discount (%discount), selling price, compound interest (for no more than three compounding periods), income tax (standard rate only) and net pay

- (At Higher Level only) Solve problems that involve cost price selling price, discount , mark up, (profit as a % of the selling price) compound interest, income tax and net pay (including other deductions)

Junior Cycle Business Studies - new Specification introduced in September 2016

In Junior Cycle Business Studies, there are three strands of study: Personal Finance, Enterprise and Our Economy.

Personal finance focuses on students developing a set of skills, knowledge and values that allows them to make informed decisions to effectively and responsibly manage their financial resources.

Enterprise encourages students to identify opportunities and turn them into practical and targeted activities within business and wider society through the development and application of their understanding, skills and values. It develops students’ basic understanding of the financial, marketing and operational functions of an organisation.

Our economy enables students to understand the dynamic relationship between the local, national and international economic situation. It develops students’ ability to identify and understand basic economic concepts as they relate to personal finance, enterprise and the Irish economy.

Financial literacy skills are developed throughout Strand 1 but also are integrated into Strand 2 and 3, where students apply financial literacy skills developed in Strand 1 to enterprises (businesses) and to the economy.

Junior Cycle Home Economics

Financial literacy is also covered in the subject of Home Economics at Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle. In Junior Cycle Home Economics, students are enabled to:

- apply consumer decision-making skills in the management of personal, family and household resources for everyday living

- debate consumers’ rights and responsibilities

- examine how consumers are protected in Ireland by legislation, statutory and non-statutory agencies apply financial literacy skills in the preparation and evaluation of a budget for independent living

Senior Cycle

Mathematics

In the Leaving Certificate, students should be able to:

- (At Ordinary Level and Higher Level) solve problems that involve calculating cost price, selling price, loss, discount, mark up (profit as a % of cost price), margin (profit as a % of selling price) compound interest, depreciation(reducing balance method), income tax and net pay (including other deductions)

- (At Higher Level only) apply the mathematics of geometric progressions to calculating repayments for amortised loans and problems relating to savings (future and present values)

- It is also worth noting that in the context and applications approach to the new syllabuses other sections of the course (strands 4 and 5 in particular)are brought to bear in solving problems involving finance and as a result students are given a rich repository of approaches to solving the everyday and very important problems.

- The learning outcomes at Foundation Level are virtually identical to those at Ordinary Level in the Junior Cycle

Economics

- The current Economics syllabus students will have an understanding of money supply and banking in an economy---but not the products offered by individual financial institutions. The new draftspecification includes learning outcomes relating to the demand and supply of money, creation of credit, interest rates and regulation in the financial markets.

Business

- Household and business manager-learning outcomes - Aspects of finance include: basic cash flow, main sources of finance, cost of finance, current account, and applying for a loan.

- Business development-learning outcomes- main sources of finance available for business start-up.

- Using skills for business-learning outcomes-explanation of the relevance of economic indicators such as inflation, employment rates, and interest rates. Economic growth, national income and national debt for individuals and the economy.

Other resources

In Ireland there are many stakeholders, both public and private sector, involved in the development of materials and programmes designed to explore and develop aspects of business capability in second-level schools. Guidelines on teaching business studies have been produced by the Business Studies Teachers Association of Ireland (BSTAI), and the Professional Development Services for Teachers (PDST) support teachers through workshops, events and online materials.

In addition, opportunities for teachers and students to have a more practical exposure to business are afforded by an established programme of national and local student enterprise competitions. The flagship competition is the Student Enterprise Awards sponsored by the County and City Enterprise Boards. Over the last ten years it has become the biggest enterprise competition for students in Ireland with over 16,000 students involved each year. Students develop life skills associated with running a real enterprise including working as part of a team, managing production and finances, organising a sales and marketing campaign and liaising directly with customers, judges and the media. The competition complements business studies and while it is open to any post-primary student, it is generally undertaken in Transition Year (TY), where it is seen as supporting the overall aims of the TY programme.

Similarly the Young Entrepreneur Programme (YEP), based in the Kerry region, has been run in secondary schools and third level institutions since 2007 and has seen 3,400 students complete a course in entrepreneurship.

At junior cycle, schools and teachers have also been supported in building the development of financial skills into their practice and lesson plans. Examples of this include materials, programmes and activities developed by the Junior Achievement Programme, Money Matters and Shop Smart (National Consumer Agency), MoneySense for Schools (Ulster Bank), and Business 2000 (Sunday Business Post) among others.

Within the FET sector there are a broad range of programmes on offer to support adult education, including financial and business courses, details of which are available on www.fetchcourses.ie . Within the adult literacy programme provision is made each year for almost 60,000 beneficiaries with investment of almost €33milllion which includes themed provision targeting financial literacy skills.

To support the ETB sector NALA the National Adult literacy Agency has produced a number of best practice guidelines with regard to financial teaching practices in Ireland, such publications include;

‘A Wealth of practice, case studies of financial numeracy practice in Ireland’, In this report Kerry ETB, City of Dublin ETB, Galway Roscommon ETB, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim ETB and Waterford Wexford ETB’s, provide for use by all ETB’s, case studies of financial numeracy teaching practice’ .

‘Making it go further – a financial literacy action research project’this report outlines a range of teaching and learning resources in use in various ETB’s throughout the country.

NALA encourages organisations including financial institutions, such as banks, to use Plain English in their publications and information leaflets. They also advise organisations on the production of literature in plain English.