Uganda became the fourth country in the world that joined Lithuania and started teaching economics using material provided in the award-winning economics textbook created by the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI).
Let’s look at the data – the results of this year’s Economics Olympiad organized by INESS, with over 6,500 high school students involved. We introduce 10 key findings concerning economic skills of the youth in Slovakia.
If I were the Minister of Education, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second when it comes to autonomous schools. They create a relatively small opposition among the interest groups in Education, they can achieve a lot in the long-term perspective.
Quarantine increases people’s desire to study and learn. On March 25th the third national economics exam, organized by the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, attracted a record number of participants (10,963). The motto of this year’s exam was “There is a human being being every number.”
Slovakia is a small country. It cannot afford to be uneducated. Still, the country has been sinking in the PISA rankings that measure “smartness” by comparing results of educational systems. Many small countries rank ahead of Slovakia.
On September 10, 2019, the first international finale of the Economics Olympiad took place in the Czech national bank in Prague. Slovakia was excellently represented by five students from whom two reached the first two medal positions.
The Economics Olympiad was launched in 2017 with a participation of 4,000 high school students. This year, the competition enjoyed even more popularity with more than 5,300 contestants overall.
With a sample of 4,000 Slovak students, the Economics Olympiad revealed the most serious weaknesses in economic education of young people. Memorizing is believed to be a long-term problem, but knowledge useful only as a part of quiz shows remains a crucial element of the Slovak education system.
There is a long history of schooling in Estonia, education is highly valued. As an IT-country, Estonia is working on better integration of IT into curricula. Our challenges are related to demographic changes, changes in school network and making teaching a more attractive profession.
