by Philippine News Agency | Tuesday, 21 June 2016
Filipino students will soon get an early start in financial literacy, and senior high school (SHS) students will have learned financial management and investment by the time they graduate.
As a member of the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) steering committee, the Department of Education (DepEd) takes on various initiatives that include a financial literacy program for the first two batches of SHS graduates, the integration of financial education and consumer protection in its K to 12 curriculum, a training program on financial literacy especially designed for teachers, and financial inclusion mechanisms for students and schools in urban and remote rural areas.
The NSFI is a multi-agency initiative aiming toward financial inclusion through policy and regulation, financial education and consumer protection, advocacy programs, and progress monitoring.
Expecting to have employable high school graduates in two years, DepEd Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction Dina S. Ocampo deemed it timely and important to begin the department’s involvement by developing a series of financial literacy modules for SHS students.
These modules are to be implemented in one or two-hour sessions once a week. Directly benefiting from this would be the graduates who decide to start a business or pursue employment after high school.
DepEd’s financial education curriculum will be based on Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) financial literacy assessment framework, and will be integrated into the K to 12 subjects that teach the related competencies, such as Edukasyong Pantahanan At Pangkabuhayan (EPP) and Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE).
The OECD-PISA framework suggests that financial education should be introduced to learners early on, starting with values formation on money, saving, and the rewards and risks in making monetary decisions. The training then escalates to concepts of budgeting, financial products, investment, and setting financial goals.
DepEd’s participation in the NSFI also aims to empower teachers with financial management knowledge and skills, as well as to establish partnerships with financial institutions to help “bank the unbanked” in schools in different urban and rural areas.
Financial education is consistent with R.A. 10679 or the Youth Entrepreneur Act, which mandates DepEd, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to establish promotion of programs on entrepreneurship and financial literacy. The inclusion of consumer protection in its curriculum also helps fulfill DepEd’s designated role under R.A. 7394 or Consumer Act of the Philippines.
Other members of the NSFI Steering Committee are the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Finance (DOF), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Insurance Commission (IC), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), National Youth Commission (NYC), Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
