Four primary schools and two secondary schools in the Northern Division began teaching Financial Education (FinED) in their classrooms this year.  Commencing in Term 1 of this year, teachers at Labasa Sangam Primary, St. Mary’s Primary School, Holy Family Primary School, Nasekula District School, All Saints Secondary School and Shri Guru Nanak Khalsa College, have delivered learning on personal money management and investment in the classroom. 

The teachers at all four FinED Champion Primary schools observe that as FinED is part of English, Maths, Social Studies/Social Science, it makes it easy to introduce Saving, Spending Wisely and Sharing into teaching and learning at all class levels.  In sharing her experience on introducing FinED into Classes 3-8 at Holy Family Primary School, Champion Teacher, Mrs. Mereia Turuva said today, “The Ministry has introduced money management to the classroom, at an opportune time when more and more of our children have access to money.  The children in my school enjoy FinED, it is both, practical and useful to them in every-day life.  A number of parents of our school have been pleasantly surprised at the positive changes their children have suggested when it comes to managing money within the family.  I look forward to introducing FinED into Classes 1 and 2 in Term 3.”

At the secondary school level, Champion secondary schools are teaching students how to Save, Spend wisely and Share in Commerce Studies, Maths, English, Accounting and Economics.  Financial Education resources have been developed for Forms 3-6 at the secondary school level.

Each of the six Northern Division Champion schools was visited this week by a member of the FinED Fiji Project team, to follow up on implementation in the classroom.  This week’s visit, follows a similar visit to Eastern FinED Champion School, Levuka Public Primary School last week, where refresher training was held with teachers of Classes 1 to 8.

The Deputy Secretary Education - Professional of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Nemani Drova, at a recent teacher training workshop on Financial Education said, “Champion schools and teachers are involved in groundbreaking work.  These play a critical role in helping lay the foundation towards strengthening the financial understanding of Fiji’s children.  As teachers we have to be prepared to continue to adapt to new teaching methods and new learning activities.  FinED brings to our schools, exciting teaching strategies and valuable learning activities, all of which can be used as Classroom Based Assessments.  We are looking forward to working with FNU this month on introducing Financial Education into their teacher training programmes.” 

By 2013, it is expected that on an annual basis, 197,000 students will have exposure to personal money management and investment in Fiji schools. The FinED Project is funded by the Australian Aid Bilateral Program in Fiji and is jointly managed by the Ministry of Education and the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme.

PFIP is a Pacific-wide programme helping to provide sustainable financial services to low income households. It operates from the UNDP Pacific Centre and is a project of the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with additional funding from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the European Union.