In Paris this morning, the OECD released its most recent PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results, which is completed every three years, and examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and how they’re able to apply that knowledge.

Volume IV, ‘Are Students Smart about Money?,’ specifically examined 15-year-old students from the 20 countries which took part, and their understanding of money matters. PISA questions were broadened this time to look more into areas such as digital financial literacy, financial education in schools, students’ attitudes toward money, and certain financial behaviours.

Canada had an extremely strong showing, placing 3^rd, only behind Estonia and Finland.

Some key takeaways:

• The results showed the important role that parents are playing in their kids’ financial education, and is an area in which Canada showed very strongly.
• Work still needs to be done when it comes to the schools and teachers – while Canada shows very well in terms of integrating financial education into curriculum and school programs, teachers are not cited strongly as a source of their financial literacy learning.
• Canada showed a strong performance in terms of the outcomes for our immigrant population – which is shown to be the largest, by proportion of population, of any country participating.
• Canadian youth in lower socio-economic situations were also able to do well, indicating that being in a position of poverty is not limiting the opportunities for our youth to develop financial literacy capability.

Explore the full report and results here: http://www.oecd.org/finance/pisa-2018-results-volume-iv-48ebd1ba-en.htm