Financial education pushed into school curriculum

THE Bank of Papua New Guinea is overseeing the tailoring of financial education and literacy into school curriculum.
This was announced at a press conference during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation senior finance officials’ meeting in Madang yesterday.
The meeting’s first session focused on education, with experiences based on studies and strategies developed over recent years forming the backdrop, said the bank’s assistant governor for financial system stability group, Ellison Pidik.
“The common issue raised was financial education,” he said.
He said financial education was the key to financial inclusion in the rural areas, especially among those who didn’t use banking services and were unaware of the importance of banking or saving money.
Pidik said developing financial education in schools was important in an era when scams and illegal money schemes were common.
“Bank of PNG would like to talk with you immediately to effect financial literacy and financial education for our young people,” he said, referring to the national education department.
“We have to protect them from scams and money schemes and from people who take advantage of their vulnerability because of the lack of education, awareness and the lack of knowledge on finance.”
The school curriculum in financial literacy has been developed by the centre for excellence in financial inclusion and micro finance expansion programme and overseen by Bank of PNG.
Pidik said they wanted financial literacy taught in schools as part of the curriculum.
He said the financial literacy curriculum formulated by the United Nations Capital Fund was being used as a pilot project in Kamaliki vocational school in Goroka, Eastern Highlands, before it was rolled out to 10 other vocational schools in the country.