BSP to provide financial education to 700,000 teachers, 24 M students

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Published May 26, 2018, 12:05 AM

By Madelaine B. Miraflor

BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO) and Department of Education (DepEd) to provide financial education through specially developed teaching tools to as many as 700,000 teachers and 24 million students.

The MOA covers the development of videos as teaching tools on basic financial literacy concepts, like saving and money management, in public schools.

The videos, designed for learners as well as educators, will come with teaching guides to strengthen the DepEd’s program on financial education in the K to 12 curriculum.

The learning tools aim to reach around 700,000 teachers and non-teaching personnel, and 24 million students in more than 47,000 public schools nation-wide.

The MOA was set to be signed on Monday (May 28) by BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr., DepEd Secretary Leonor-Magtolis Briones, and BDO Foundation (BDOF) President Mario Deriquito.

This partnership is being forged under the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI), particularly the pillar on Financial Education and Consumer Protection (FECP).

The NSFI provides a platform for the private sector to support the government’s work in enhancing the financial literacy of Filipinos through financial education.

“The BSP believes that a financially learned citizenry can be more effective in productively contributing to the Philippine economy. To date, financial education remains a formidable task, one that requires coordinated multi-stakeholder action. With DepEd onboard in this partnership, the commitment of our educators, and private sector support, we can collectively influence every child who goes through the Philippine educational system to strive towards a healthy financial future,” Espenilla, Jr. said.

The low financial literacy in the country was revealed in a recent survey which showed that Filipino adults correctly answered only three out of seven questions related to basic numeracy, computing compounding interest, fundamentals of inflation, and investment diversification. Only two percent of Filipino adults answered all questions correctly.

The study also showed that Filipinos lack specific knowledge to make informed financial decisions.

In the same study, it was found that money management habits formed in childhood stay into adulthood. Those who began saving as children displayed better attitudes on saving, and tended to outperform their counterpart group who did not develop the habit early in the areas of choosing financial products and services, monitoring expenses and planning for retirement.

“The BSP will remain a strong supporter of financial education initiatives, ready to partner with like-minded public and private sector stakeholders. The BSP believes that a financially literate citizenry able to understand, select and effectively use financial services that fit their needs can significantly benefit from participating in the financial system as depositors and investors,” Espenilla said.

“They can better protect themselves from fraud and harmful financial practices, and be more effective BSP partners in maintaining price stability and ensuring a strong, safe and efficient banking and payment system,” he added. (Madelaine B. Miraflor / Google News PH))