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The aim of the study is to find out how much the financial education activities that were implemented at school and in the country have contributed to the development of financial literacy achievements by comparing the PISA 2012 and PISA 2018 survey data.
Research question: Have the activities, that are implemented in the country in order to promote financial literacy, helped to increase financial literacy achievements for students from Latvia?
Society is as developed as its individuals are. Human development is promoted by education, as Plato said: “Education develops in the body and soul of the pupil all the beauty and all the perfection he is capable of.” (Plato - Philosopher and Mathematician of Classical Ancient Greece (427 BC-348 BC)) (Taneja, 2005). Kumar and Ahmad (2007) put it even more precisely: “Education is a purposive, conscious or unconscious, psychological, sociological, scientific and philosophical process, which brings about the development of the individual to the fullest extent and also the maximum development of society in such a way that both enjoy maximum happiness and prosperity.” Education plays an important role in promoting the well-being of the individual and in the overall development of society, so it is essential that the education that an individual receives is of high quality and meets his needs and society’s needs.
The quality of education is largely determined by the decisions what related to the education process made by education policy-makers – leaders.
The Ministry of Education and Science (MES) is the institution that is responsible for decisions that determine the educational standards, quality, and content of our society. In addition, MES is responsible for society’s education quality internationally. It means that policy-maker should keep it in mind when defining the knowledge base for society. Consequently, when making decisions related to education, the MES must be convinced of its compliance with the needs of the society and the need to form an educated, knowledgeable and capable society.
Education policy-makers can make decisions based on their own feelings as well as on an informative basis. Subjective or sensory decisions are more acceptable in a business environment where a person has to rely on their intuition to predict what might happen in the future and what people might need. Decisions cannot be based only on the subjective feelings of the particular minister, these decisions should be based on the interests, needs and necessities of society. When making decisions, we need to understand where we are, why we are here and how we can get out of here. Consequently, the author believes that education policy-makers need an information base on which to make decisions that are well thought out, proven and justified, and therefore based on real data.
Decision-making based on data is becoming increasingly important in the education sector (Barton et.al, 2014; Gelderblom et.al, 2016). The use of data has become an important feature of education policy in many countries. This emphasis on data decision-making has been consistent since research (Black et.al., 2004; Carlson et.al., 2011; Earl and Katz, 2006; McNaughton et.al., 2012; Protheroe, 2001; Schildkamp et.al., 2013; Symonds, 2004; Young, 2006) has shown that a school can improve its performance if teachers and school management make effective use of the data. Educators and also policy-makers do not always have the time, knowledge and skills to create and work with relevant data that could help decision-making (Gelderblom et.al, 2016). Strategies should focus on fostering networking, partnerships and networking between researchers and practitioners in order to improve the uptake of research results by educational leaders. The main long-term goal is to develop a culture that supports and evaluates the investment that research can make to educational decision-making. Research results should be offered to practitioners in a way and in a language they can understand so it can be used in the right way. Consequently, partnerships need to be strengthened in order to help transfer these results to their end-users (Hemsley-Brown, 2005).