Date Time
CBA responds to ASIC review of school banking programs
Commonwealth Bank has actively participated in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) review of school banking programs over the past two years, to ensure our program continues to support the financial wellbeing of young Australians. While we acknowledge some of the findings, we do not believe they are entirely consistent with international research or our own, and we do not agree with the overall assessment of school banking programs.
As noted in ASIC’s report released today, school banking programs are very highly regarded by participating schools, students and parents. There is also considerable evidence that children who have a bank account and participate in our School Banking program are more effective savers and attain higher financial literacy than other children of the same age.
Is Jordan’s workforce ready for emerging opportunities in digital entrepreneurship?
Students attend a class at one of the public schools during the first day after the end of teachers one-month strike in Amman, Jordan, October 6, 2019. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
With job creation stalled in 2019 and further damaged by the pandemic, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is relying on its entrepreneurial zeal to accelerate economic growth. By tapping into its large, tech-savvy youth population, which makes up more than half of its citizens, and its markedly underutilized female labor force (ranked 145 out of 153 countries for women’s economic participation in the latest World Economic Forum 2020 Global Gender Gap Report), Jordan can position itself for dynamic post-COVID economic expansion. Complemented by robust mobile and internet penetration at 87 percent in 2018 and underpinning the commitments in its Vision 2025, the burgeoning information and communications technology and digital s
Results from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 testing round were released last week. They showed Australia had improved in Year 8 maths and science, and Year 4 science, from the previous testing cycles.
The TIMSS is a standardised, international assessment administered to check how effective countries are in teaching maths and science. Another international standardised test is the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA examines how well students in secondary schools across 36 OECD countries, and 43 other countries or economies, can apply reading, maths, science and other skills to real-life situations.
Standardised tests have been in place in a number of educational systems for nearly two centuries. They are rooted in reformers’ desire to regulate schooling and hold educators accountable, in the hopes of improving teaching and learning. But how did such exams gain momentum and why are they so controversial?