Financial Literacy Education for Fiji schools

19/04/2010

The Minister for Education, Mr Filipe Bole, has approved a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) proposal to introduce Financial Literacy Education into the school curriculum.
 
Finance Literacy Education refers to the student’s ability to make informed judgments and effective decisions about the use and management of their money.
 
Mr Bole said the proposal augurs well with the Ministry of Finance and Fijian Affairs’ proposals to the Ministry of Education to start Entrepreneur Education.
 
The consultants of the proposed curriculum, Lyn Morris and Sharron Buer from UNDP, said Finance Literacy Education will strengthen Entrepreneur Education because people need to learn how to manage their finances before they can start a business.
 
The benefits of the proposed curriculum are:
 
  • It inculcates in Fiji’s students knowledge, skills and values through financial literacy especially getting excellent value for the money they sweat for; and
  • It develops a new generation of Fiji citizen who would manage better their personal finances.

According to the consultants, the Financial Education Curriculum has proven success in Samoa and the Forum Education Ministers have requested UNDP to assist other Pacific Island Countries (PICs) to implement the curriculum.

Minister for Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts, Youth and Sports, Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment, Mr Filipe Bole