Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

A test PISA examination will be implemented in Serbia in April and May, as an introduction to the main study in 2018, with our country returning after having missed the previous cycle in 2015.

Reading literacy is the main domain of testing in PISA 2018, therefore the majority of tasks will be in this field, with students also solving tasks from the fields of mathematical and scientific literacy. Additionally, students from Serbia will complete a financial literacy test for the first time, both in the test and main examination, while another novelty is that the tasks will be solved using computers, which have replaced paper and pencil tests.

The transition to electronic testing brings new opportunities for students – to open multiple pages, to highlight parts of the text, transfer, combine… as well as better quality questions, states Dragica Pavlović Babić, the National Coordinator of the PISA Study in Serbia, speaking for the Danas daily: – (…) The PISA project shows the direction our education is moving in, you can monitor the effects of systemic changes, see what is producing the best results, plan in a more long-term and comprehensive manner… I believe it is important for an educational system to have this kind of test, along with other types of tests, because otherwise we could not orient ourselves, we would not have criteria to assess if we are good and how good we are. We would have teachers grading everything for themselves. PISA is globally accepted as a desirable and good measuring instrument, and the results of this study serve as important arguments in various discussions, as well as in decision-making.

The most striking finding of the last PISA survey Serbia participated in is that we have around one third of functionally illiterate students? What can they do, or what can they not do?

– To be insufficiently functionally literate means you do not have a sufficient grasp of strategies for handling information, and a certain amount of information you encounter as a student or citizen in your various civic and professional roles is insurmountable for you. As teachers and experts working in schools and with young people, as parents, as citizens, we really have to be worried by the fact that such a high percentage of students has been assessed as insufficiently functionally literate, and these are, if we recall, students at the very beginning of secondary education, still facing a long period of education, where it is hard for them to orient themselves, and an even longer period of professional work, where they also cannot adequately adjust.

What will be tested under financial literacy?

– Financial literacy means you know how to use financial tools, e.g. money, credit cards, cheques, to assess what is favourable for you in the short-term, and what in the long-term. Students have pocket money, they buy cell phones and monthly subscription packages for them, see their parents taking out loans… all these are situations that have an impact on them, and should prepare them for the future. Whatever result we get in financial literacy, it will be useful for us. It is also a message that not every field needs to be a separate subject, but that there is room to study it within existing content and subjects.

Source: www.danas.rs