Fiji: Educational games to boost financial education

PFIP PRESS RELEASE

Making Learning Fun - Educational games to boost financial education in schools.

[3rd November, 2011, Suva, Fiji] By 2013, all primary schools in Fiji will be learning how to save, spend wisely and invest. The ability to manage money is an essential life skill for all students in Fiji regardless of their age.

With exciting and innovative methods of teaching financial education, 12 regional primary school teachers, Ministry of Education officials and staff from the ministry’s Curriculum Development Unit have underwent a four-day workshop in Suva to do just that.

The educational games, “Beware the Money Snakes”, “Time Saver”, very similar to snakes and ladders and monopoly board games are designed to teach students how to understand the use and perform money calculations, differentiate between needs and wants and be able to accurately track and record their income and spending.

It is believed that educational games promote logical thinking and problem solving. By acquiring their own skills and recognizing their own values, students will learn to build and better their own financial understanding.

Lead facilitator, Ms. Sharron Buer, Young Enterprise Trust NZ indicated, “The real beauty of Financial Education board games is that they can be played many times, over the financial education learning time, and when students track their progress they can celebrate their success.”

Ms. Buer added that, “FED games provide an authentic and fun way for students to apply the knowledge and skills they have gained from their financial education learning, and explore financial values and attitudes. These are important component in developing financial competency.”

Through this range of dedicated activities, the FinED project is integrating financial education into the existing school curricula in all levels from class 1 to form 6. A similar workshop for secondary teachers will be held in Suva from the 15th to 18th of November. FinED Project is funded by the Australian Aid Program in Fiji and is jointly managed by the Ministry of Education and the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme. Young Enterprise Trust of New Zealand, are the providers of specialist and technical services to the Project.

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

ENDS

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