Philippines: DepEd strengthens financial literacy program in public schools

To boost financial literacy among Filipinos, the Department of Education has partnered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the BDO Foundation (BDOF) to disseminate learning materials on managing finances to public schools nationwide.

Under the partnership, audiovisual tools will be distributed to around 700,000 public school teachers and non-teaching personnel in the coming months. These learning materials will be used for training teachers and other personnel, as well as for classroom instruction.

The videos, which will be distributed through different platforms based on the needs and capabilities of the schools, will focus on teaching learners simple ways to save and manage expenses.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones, BSP Gov. Nestor Espenilla Jr. and BDOF president Mario Deriquito signed the memorandum of agreement in Pasig City earlier this week.

Financial literacy has already been integrated in several subjects under the basic education system, with financial and entrepreneurial concepts included in the curricula of both elementary and secondary students in the Technology and Livelihood Education and “Edukasyong Pangkabuhayan at Pantahanan” subjects.

A study done by the World Bank in 2015 revealed poor financial literacy among Filipino adults, who were able to answer less than half of the seven financial literacy-related questions correctly.

Results of the study also show that one in 10 Filipino adults did not appear to have a “sound grasp” of any of the basic concepts included in the test.