Plan to include finance studies in schools

 THE Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) is planning to partner with the Department of Education to rollout financial literacy in schools by including it in education curriculum, deputy governor Benny Popoitai said. 

Popoitai said the financial education partnership was to make sure that the young population in the education system learnt finance, banking and other areas in financial system.

He said the students should know the basics including deposits and savings.

“They should understand how the banking and finance system works. What is deposit, what is lending, what is insurance, what is a loan, what is budgeting, what is investment – those basic things.

“Those things are learnt at school and when they come out, their mind is already ready – they know how to take advantage of opportunities that’s created.

“We want to include financial education in the education curriculum so that kids would know about this financial terms and basic financial literature when they are at school.

“And those who are interested, they can get specific subjects, to study,” Popoitai said. 

“That’s what we want to see – to be part of the normal education curriculum, just like English, Maths and Science.” 

He said the young mind is better equipped to adopt and learn rather than after becoming an adult and was taken through the financial education. 

“When they become adults, they already would have basic understanding of how the financial system and banking services work.”

However, some challenges remained in terms of recruitment of new teachers which may lead to the demand for new infrastructures.