What Should Also Be Taught In This Compulsory Financial Literacy Module for Students?
One of the initiatives that were launched by the Government with MoneySense was to educate Singaporeans from a younger age, mainly year 1 Polytechnic and ITE students.
By implementing a mandatory financial education curriculum to boost their financial literacy and help them manage their money properly starting in 2019.
This initiative aims to educate the younger people in managing their money properly which was announced along with other new initiatives as part of the government’s efforts to boost financial literacy to Singaporeans.
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post, Seedly and its community feels that this change is a long time coming.
Some Background Information on the Financial Education Curriculum
- The module would be mandatory but not graded.
As it is not graded, some students might naturally deem the module as unimportant and a waste of time.
Therefore, it is important that the module should be relevant and relatable to not waste this opportunity before they yet again splurge on YEEZY’s latest release.
What will be taught?
- Budgeting
- Goal-setting
- Financial Basics: The effect of compounding interest on debt and savings
At Seedly, we share the same sentiment on educating millennials on the basics as well as the importance of starting early.
With the effect of compounding interest, it allows you to shave off years from reaching your retirement goals especially when you start early.
The Curriculum Breakdown
These topics are not bad for a start, however, you wouldn’t require an entire semester to go through 3 topics. It would be nice if the module could cover personal finance as a whole (refer to the image above).
Especially introducing CPF to Singaporeans and how we could maximise a savings tool given to us by the Government.
Read Also: $1 million by the time you are 65, in your CPF account. How to achieve this?
Some suggested topics they could also look at:
- Introduction to CPF
- Basics of Insurance
- Basics of Investments
Who will be affected?
- Year 1 students from Polytechnic and ITE students.
They will be piloting the programme with year 2 and 3 students from Poly and ITE over the next few years.
- The programme will help them understand insurance, investments, and national schemes like CPF can help them meet their financial obligations when they step into the workforce.
We remain hopeful that the programme will extend to university students to help educate them before they enter the workforce and truly start #adulting.
From then, it is important to know how to budget your finances and not spending your entire paycheque especially when you start having goals you want to achieve by a certain age like applying for a BTO with your loved one.
Secondary School students are getting fin-lit lessons as well
Though the programme is for Polytechnic and ITE students at the moment, Secondary school students are definitely not neglected.
A Seedly community member had reached out to us to inform all of us that through Food and Consumer Education (FCE), previously known as Home Economics, students are introduced to financial literacy.
Things that are cultivated through FCE lessons are:
- Budgeting,
- Credit uses,
- Differentiating between a need and a want,
- Learning how to be a discerning consumer when purchasing items.
Curriculums are made relatable to engage secondary school students.
Views from the Seedly Community
As mentioned above, the community feels that this initiative should have been implemented long ago!
“This is good news! Financial education should be a core foundation for every school… It’s not about money habits, but money attitudes as well.. Money habitudes!”
– Ronald Wong“After 2 years of ITE and 2.5 years of poly, my last sem finishing in april then they come out with this.”
– Nicholes Wong“Just beautiful!! Should educate all students if possible!”
– Benjamin Chua“Another reason to go back to school.. seems fun xD”
– Teo Meng Yuan
Are Millennials like how Baby-boomers call us?
Millennials are often stereotyped as ‘spend-thrift’ often spending our money on avocado toast or not planning for our retirement by the baby-boomers.
But are we really what they call us?
I doubt it. A survey was done by Facebook (refer to the image above) has shown that only 6% had no personal finance product, not even a bank account.
Although at the same time, we hope that the 74% are holding onto a savings account that is best for you.
Background Information on MoneySense
MoneySense is Singapore’s national financial education programme which aims to educate Singaporeans on financial literacy and to learn how to manage their money better. Which explains this initiative.
The MoneySense Council is co-chaired by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Manpower and comprises representatives from various government agencies.
MoneySense has been actively been engaging Singaporeans through school events or roadshows to educate our fellow Singaporeans, with their latest roadshow at Our Tampines Hub.
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