June 22 , 2017 Moscow

1. Budget Literacy for High School Students: Objectives, Contents, Pilot Resultsteaching and learningmaterials June 22,2017 Moscow

2. Table of Contents • Why is the course needed? • What is this course all about? • What are the course piloting results? • What to do next?

3. 1.Why is the course needed? Demand for budget literacy grows for a number of reasons: • Public activity of citizens is on the rise (direct protection of public interests rather than through an elected representative using participatory budgeting, budget spending reviews, investigation of corruption cases, and a growing number of protests against needed unpopular social reforms); • School education gets more practical (the budget concerns many target groups – schoolchildren, students, businessmen, vulnerable groups dependent on budget support, public servants and media); • Budget continues to play an important role in the lives of the citizens (jobs, budget workers payroll, etc.); • Availability and clarity of budget information is getting better (open budget, citizens’ budget, public hearings, open procurement, etc.) • Public engagement emerges from the rapid evolution of related disciplines – financial literacy (in the first place), as well as social science, economics and mathematics.

4. Why is the course needed? Goal of the course • Contribute to the development of a responsible civiс stand through understanding of objectives and functions of a national (local) budget and roles of citizens in the budget formationand spending and budget process. Objectives of the course • Learners should acquire knowledge of the national (local) budget and budget process, and develop skills to apply this knowledge in practice (to be able to read, decode and understand the information on budget planning and execution in the budget system of the Russian Federation); • Learners should be ready for active participation in the budget process.

5. Why is the course needed? Expected learning outcomes • Knowledge of a budget system and a budget process in the country, ability to analyze information on the budget; • Awareness of a citizen’s role, as well as the role of a civil society and other counterparts in the budget process, development of a civic stand through understanding of objectives and functions of a national budget; • Preparedness of a citizen for a responsible participation in the budget process, including to exercising a justified impact on the decision making process regarding allocation of budget expenditures.

6. 2. What is this course all about? Key principles and policies • The course curriculum covers all budget system levels, but discusses the things close to the schoolchildren’s understanding and experience: delivery of public and municipal services at the level of their settlement. • Active participation of a school student in the training process based on a wide use of interactive methods. • Mutual complementarity of training materials. • The program seeks to develop general competencies: ability to reach consensus, work in a team, assert one’s own opinion, respect another point of view. • The course completes the public finance learning at school, enhancing and expanding the knowledge acquired in social science and economics classes.

7. 2.What is this course all about? The course needs 36 hours of training and may be implemented in any of the two options: basic and advanced. Basic and advanced options differ by: • the level of contents complexity (a higher degree of detail and specialization, with enhanced and more complex concepts, following the logic ‘from information reproduction to its better understanding and application in the new context and for new tasks’), • types of training exercises, varying degree of complexity of problems to be solved by the learners, higher expected independence of learners in problem solving. An advanced option is meant for the learners with a higher initial education level acquired through a deeper learning of such training disciplines as Economics, Social Science and Law.

8. 2.What is this course all about? Teaching and learning materials (TLM) Learners’ Textbook Objective: provide knowledge for active citizens’ behavior The textbook provides a systemic framework of budget literacy knowledge, supporting both basic and advanced learning of the subject. • Includes main concepts, terms, consistent patterns and procedures of budget management in a well-defined and clear manner • Covers a wide range of budget issues, budget policies, budget processes Learners’ Workbook Objective: teach use of knowledge acquired from the textbook and during school classes The workbook may be used for team work at school or for a learner’s individual work under the training program. The workbook structure and contents of proposed problems are fully consistent with the structure and contents of the textbook. • Supports practical consolidation of knowledge • Includes various types of tasks and problems • Allows role plays and other modern forms of training

9. 2.What is this course all about? Teaching and learning materials (TLM) Teacher’s Guide Objective: assist teacher in organization of a training process Methodological guidelines for teachers are a set of systematized materials needed for the training course delivery, allowing a teacher to choose a methodological information in accordance with the specific goal of an individual lesson, teacher’s professional qualifications, known education needs of learners, and other factors. • Contains additional and reference materials, explanatory notes for teachers • Includes references to the regulatory documents and other sources for every class • Includes answers and solutions to the workbook test items Parents’ Guide Objective: engage parents in the learning process The Parents’ Guide helps parents systematize their knowledge and social experience in addition to equipping them with skills to help their children learn the material. • Contains enhanced materials on a number of issues of potential interest for mutual discussions between high school children and their parents • Helps parents enhance their knowledge and check the knowledge of their children

10. 2.What is this course all about? TLM For Teachers Methodological Guide For Students Textbook Workbook For Parents Guidebook Budget system of the Russian Federation Organization of the budget process How to relieve the burden of commitments before the budget What can you get from the budget You are an active citizen How can one defend one’s rights • I. What do we pay to the budget and why • What is a budget and why do we need one. Where does the budget receive the money from and why is it so often short of money • Citizens and budget. What is our contribution to the budget • II. What do we get from the budget and how • What can be received from the budget • Which budget pays for what and why • How to manage budget expenditures: principles, methods and tools • III. How can we influence the budget • Where can I get information on the budget • How can I influence the budget

11. 2.What is this course all about? Objectives of a Learner’s Textbook Explain to a learner, a growing citizen, that: • Budget is formed bythe funds received directly or indirectly from the citizens; • Being a source of funding for solution of social issues, a budget plays an important role in our everyday life; • Budget is a complex document but one may attempt to understand and analyze it; • One may and need to participate in the budget process in other roles, in addition to being a taxpayer. It should also provide knowledge for an effective citizen’s behavior.

12. 2.What is this course all about? The main contents of a learner’s textbook • Key concepts and causal relationships between manifestations and processes. • Examples of familiar situations. • International comparisons and examples. • Raising and discussion of problem issues. • Practical recommendations: • Where to look for information? • How to analyze it? • What to do? Textbook specific features • Explanation with illustrations (diagrams, figures, cartoons). • Focus on important statements using maxims and quotations. • Glossary as a reference tool and a training instrument.

13. 2.What is this course all about? The main function of a workbook isto teach how to use knowledge acquired from a textbook and during a lesson: • Information search and analysis • Use of knowledge in practice Three types of tasks • Consolidation of learning material • Understanding of key relationships • Development of knowledge and skills

14. 2.What is this course all about? Objectives of a teacher’s methodological guide • Help organize training in compliance with the learners’ level and teacher’s preferences, choosing from a basic or advanced level. • Provide as many interactive training tools as possible. • Provide additional information for a better understanding of the subject. • Provide a module-based approach to training, where basic and advanced training modules may be combined. The guide contains • Methodological and teaching process components – lesson plans, possible training forms and lesson scenarios, etc. • Educational component: topics for discussion with expected outcomes, case studies for detailed explanation in a classroom, scenarios of role plays and test items. • Information component – expanded comments on complex aspects of budget and budget process, facts and references to various sources of information, including electronic, recommended literature.

15. 2.What is this course all about? Proposed varieties of interactive training • ‘Reversed’ lesson • Discussion (organization of a discussion of problematic issues with learners regardingtopics proposed for discussion) • Situational analysis (case studies) • Role plays (simulation of budget process steps and situations related to decision making on resource management) – 3 role plays • Lesson with a team-based solution (detailed review) of problems • Study tour (visit to a legislature, supreme financial authority, government office, etc.) • Lesson in the form of a press-conference (a dialogue with an invited power representative) • Educational quest (involving parents)

16. 2.What is this course all about? The key purpose of the Parents Guide is to involve parents in the process of development, allocation and control over the budget execution. Objective– provide practical knowledge on the budget, taxes and public services, to be used in everyday life. The Guide includes a minimum list of key concepts to provide a general understanding of a budget and a budget process with practical recommendations on: • Tax estimate and payment; • Getting benefits and tax deductions; • Participation in the budget process; • Public procurement control. The Guide references the Internet information sources on the budget and citizens’ rights, including links to the feed-back portals facilitating communication between a citizen and authorities on budget and tax issues.

17. 3.What are the course piloting results? Program piloting statistics The pilot involved 58teachers and1,048students from 31education facilities, including: Altai Krai (region) 20 teachers and 281 students from 10 schools took part in the pilot. Republic of Bashkortostan 22 teachers and 481 students from 11 schools took part in the pilot. Perm Krai 16 teachers and 286 students from 10 schools took part in the pilot.

18. 3.What are the course piloting results? Program piloting outputs

19. 3.What are the course piloting results? Assessment of training materials by the pilot participants Teachers’ assessment Learners’ assessment Parents’ assessment

20. 4. What to do next? • The course is ready for implementation, the publishers may start a mass scale printing of it. • The curriculum for the training course Budget Literacy for High School Students is developed to be listed as asupplemental course in the Register of Proposed Main Courses of General Education Curricularof the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia. • The course materials may be used to teach budget literacy: • As a stand-alone discipline (optional or elective); • As an integral part of another discipline, e.g., Social Science, Economics, or Financial Literacy (there is a plan to include Budget Literacy issues into the training programs of mandatory disciplines); • As an extracurricular activity.

21. 4. What to do next? 1.In addition to TLM, training success depends on other factors, e.g.: • How deeply a teacher is ‘immersed’ in this discipline; • Teacher’s preparedness to use interactive training methods and to validate information on the budget process and data; • Teachers’ motivation in getting a detailed understanding of a ‘new’ discipline; • Involvement of officials from financial, national and local authorities in the education process; • Availability and administration quality of a budget literacy portal. 2.The higher education level is planning to develop proposals on incorporation of budget literacy issues in the teacher training curriculum in pedagogical universities: • For the profile university graduates – improvement of practical focus of the course, handling the most recent data from open sources; • For the non-profile university graduates – an optional course, covering participatory budgeting aspects in addition to the issues of budget formation and allocation.

22. Thank you for your attention!