For a while now I have been following the progress of a financial education programme in Fiji. It seems to me that if a relatively small country in the Pacific can get its act together and provide meaningful financial education for its children then countries closer to home should take a look and see what can be learned.
Here’s the latest courtesy of the Fiji Times:
CLOSE to 200,000 students in more than 900 schools now have access to financial literacy programs, thanks to an initiative by the Ministry of Education and the Pacific Financial Inclusion Program.
This was the message from the deputy secretary for Education Kelera Taloga while speaking at the Pacific Microfinance Week workshop in Nadi yesterday.
She informed microfinance stakeholders that the Fiji Financial Education Curriculum Development Project involved the strengthening of financial education within the school curriculum for primary and secondary schools.
“We have identified that financial education is something that has been lacking so we have rolled this program out to 735 primary and 175 secondary schools across the nation,” Ms Taloga said.
“We want our children to develop financial competencies and the best way we have identified to implement this is in the classroom.”
Ms Taloga said there were no extra teaching hours or classes, no existing subjects replaced and no change in timetables — resulting in minimal disruption to normal classes.
She added that financial education at schools marked the first step in a three-phase program
