Lecture for Teachers on the Possibilities of Using the TaxEdu Platform in Teaching

For a decade, the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia has been striving to raise awareness among young people in Slovenia about the importance of taxes for the social welfare of all citizens. The Financial Administration implemented the project "Tax Literacy for Youth" in primary and secondary schools as well as universities. This time, it responded to an invitation from the Institute of Education of the Republic of Slovenia and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Slovenia, which organized a special training session for teachers to improve financial literacy, including knowledge of taxes. In collaboration with the Bank of Slovenia, a two-day seminar for teachers was held on March 18 and April 3, 2024.The first day focused on financial and banking topics, while the second day was dedicated to taxes. Under the title "How to Talk to Students About Taxes in School?", teachers were introduced to topics that they should be familiar with if they wanted to deliver tax-related topics to students in their classrooms. As a practical illustration of organizing a lesson on taxes, the online platform TaxEdu was presented, including cartoons for children aged 9 to 12 and e-courses for high school students. By watching individual videos and e-modules, teachers could gain a realistic insight into how a lesson on taxes could be conducted. Participants were very satisfied with what they saw and stated that they would incorporate the TAXEDU platform into their teaching materials, even though tax-related subjects are not yet included in the mandatory school curriculum in Slovenia. They are aware that raising awareness among young people about the importance of paying taxes is truly important for the future of the youth, as it guarantees them free education up to university, social security during family formation, accessible public healthcare for all, and ultimately, social security in retirement. The concluding part of the workshop involved teachers preparing their own lesson on financial and tax literacy for their students, which they successfully completed in the online classroom. The training session has shown a great need for raising awareness and educating adults about paying taxes as a fundamental condition for a modern society to function and meet our common needs. In the school environment, teachers are indeed the key factor who can increase the awareness of paying taxes as a civic value among young people. Therefore, in the future, attention should also be paid to this target group and not only directly to young people.