Forty schools to trial financial education curriculum
Soon financial education will be a compulsory subject taught in all public schools nationwide.
And the building blocks were assembled in the last two weeks in Central Province, were 21 draft books of student activity and teacher resource from Preparatory -to- Year-6 were put together by educationist and financial experts.
In 2021, CEFI or the Center for Excellence in Financial Inclusion and the Department of Education signed a Memorandum of Understanding to have Financial Education become a school subject.
Recently, 25 content writers went throught the phase of making it become reality as explained by CEFI Executive Director Saliya Ranasinghe.
"It is important that we have these materials implemented in the classrooms, something we would like to see, and we have selected 40 schools in all the regions in PNG.
"These materials will be pilot tested, so it will go through 2 years of pilot testing period [and] we learn how the children react and we will revisit the material and see [if] there is a need for improvement," Mr Ranasinghe said.
Participants were engaged in discussions and content writing, to create high-quality educational resources that cover important financial topics like savings, budgeting, banking services, debt management, investments, and insurance.
A follow-up workshop will be held before the year end, to develop resources for Grades 7-12, focusing on advanced topics like investment, superannuation, and retirement.
Department of Education acting First Assistant Secretary - Curriculum Development - Alex Magun said the department is committed to have financial education taught in schools.
"The department will embark on moving the subject foward [and] this is teacher training [because] they must be taught on how to use the curriculum," Mr Magun said.
CEFI Deputy Executive Director Peter Samuel said, "financial education is not just about teaching children how to count coins, or have a piggy bank or develop a budget.
"It's about empowering them to be responsible, informed [and] proactive in their financial life."