Recommendation 22

HM Government · verbatim extract Deferred

Financial literacy is not an option offered by the OECD in the current (2025) cycle of PISA as it has been replaced for this cycle with a foreign language assessment. Securing school participation in PISA can be difficult as the study places additional burdens on schools and pupils during pupils’ GCSE year. Participating in additional assessments risks increasing this burden and could affect our ability to secure sufficient schools to take part in the study. However, the Department for Education will consider participation in the next (2029) cycle after mid-2026, when more information on the study and its available options is provided by the OECD. This may include piloting the financial literacy assessment at the field trial stage to evaluate the feasibility of delivering this option, particularly the impact on securing school participation and the extent of the additional burden on schools and pupils. As education is devolved, the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are responsible for education, skills and family policies and education systems in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland respectively. However, engagement between governments allows us to share our collective knowledge and experience and work collaboratively on shared interests and challenges to deliver better outcomes for people across the UK. The Department for Education engages the devolved governments at ministerial and official level on a range of areas covering education, skills and family policies and will continue to do so. We are happy to include discussions about involvement in future PISA financial literacy assessments. We thank the Committee for reiterating its predecessor’s report. Whilst there is still much work to do, the range of new government reforms outlined in this response addresses many of the previous Committee’s concerns, although some of the recommendations contain detail related to the previous government’s intended programme of work. High and rising school standards are at the heart of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best life chances. The independent CAR, covering ages 5 to 18, seeks to deliver an excellent foundation in core subjects of reading, writing and maths; and a curriculum that readies pupils for life and for work. The review will look at ensuring all young people aged 16 to 19 have access to rigorous and high-value qualifications and training pathways that will give them the skills they need to ensure they are ready for the changing workplace. Following their call for evidence and stakeholder events in the autumn, the review group will publish an interim report early in 2025 setting out their interim findings and confirming the key areas for further work. The final report with recommendations will be published in autumn 2025. This government is also working to ensure that schools can recruit, train and retain the teachers they need to break down barriers to opportunity as a priority. We understand the scale of the challenge and are committed to working with the sector to tackle it and restore teaching’s status as a valued and trusted profession. This response sets out a range of measures, including bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as maths, physics, chemistry and computing. We will build on our early efforts, and work at pace to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers and maximise teachers’ development opportunities to ensure every child has the qualified expert teachers they need. Ofsted will be consulting on a new education inspection framework shortly, to come into effect next academic year, alongside the introduction of school report cards. There is existing support in place to help schools to deliver effective financial education, for example, from the Money and Pensions Service, Oak, the Home Office and HMRC. We recognise, however, that training needs to evolve so that teachers remain competent and confident to teach and adapt their curriculum, for example, in line with the rapid expansion of digital financial transactions, which has exposed children to financial decisions and potential risk from a young age. That is why the work of the Money and Pensions Service, through their data collection, national strategy and delivery plans, is so important and why we must continue to work closely across government and in partnership with others, to ensure that we approach the challenges in a coordinated and evidence-driven way. The Department for Education looks forward to its engagement with the new Education Select Committee during this Parliament, and reporting on our progress to deliver this government’s ambitions as set out in this response. 1 PISA 2022 Results (Volume IV) | OECD 2 Early years foundation stage profile results, Academic year 2023/24 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK 3 International Results - TIMSS 2023 4