The education ministry will be utilising technology to incorporate financial literacy and entrepreneurship at the primary and high school levels.

It’s a step further in getting more graduates financially literate. Some schools across the island are already introducing personal finance education, but it’s usually done by independent agencies and community banks. The Junior Achievement Jamaica in collaboration with the education ministry has also been trying to get more schools on board for its programme that highlights entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy through experiential and hands-on programmes. What’s lacking with all these solutions are that they are temporary, and only ever been introduced to each school at least once and it’s time sensitive. None of these programmes are a requirement by schools full time or annually, leaving scores of students missing out on basic money management skills each academic year.

The question of “why wasn’t I taught this in school” has lingered on the minds of many adults today when it comes to banking, saving, budgeting and investing. When children take financial literacy classes, they learn these basics, including debt management. This education provides a strong foundation they can build on as adults and helps them avoid lifelong money problems, setting themselves on a path toward success early on.

While some children might have parents who are financially literate and can pass on this knowledge, there are a subset of students who do not have that kind of educational support, the absence of which means the Government has to step in to create a wiser generation.

The move started in 2015 with the Junior Achievement Jamaica. In an interview with the Jamaica Observer, its interim executive director Cassie Smith explained that the programme provides students of grades 5 and 6 with six weeks of training, at the end of which, the students are placed in a simulation called “biz town” where they are tested practically on how to manage their money. They are placed in roles of being a producer and a consumer, mimicking what is expected from adults on a daily basis.

“They are paid and now they have to budget out of their pay cheque. They have to buy food, leisure activities like hotels and spa, based on what their pay cheque is. They are expected to budget it out to ensure they aren’t over spending,” Smith explained, adding that she believed it helped students open their mind to understanding what it means to have money and how to spend it. The programme targets about 8,000 to 10, 000 students each year and over 100 schools participated in 2022.

But there’s a flaw in the programme, it requires teachers to “volunteer” to learn.

“They [the education ministry] would send an invitation [to schools] so they can sign up to participate in the training, once the teachers come to the training and indicate the number of students they have currently being enrolled in their class then we would commence the training for them,” said Smith.

“But if no teacher and principal want to participate, then those schools would have missed out. And with teachers unsatisfied with salary packages and teacher migration hitting an all time high, it’s proving challenging to maintain, let alone improve the programme.”

Smith further explained that schools can not be forced to participate.

“The fact of the matter is, it’s actually a part of the national standards curriculum, so technically it is mandatory but schools opt in and out based on their capacity to participate.”

To bridge these gaps, Acting Chief Education Officer Dr Kasan Troupe said the education ministry has been looking into taking these programmes and converting them virtually.

“So what we are doing now is to build all of these enrichment activities in the electronic space and create the opportunity for students to go in over a period of time to complete these programmes with support of their teachers,” said Troupe in an interview with the Business Observer, which she says will eliminate the need for specialised teachers because teacher shortages will be an issue for a while, so the focus is on pushing independent learning.

While entrepreneurship is taught in business basics or principles of business classes, a cohort of students who would not opt to choose business subjects or show an interest would also be left out of such opportunities to learn personal finance. Added to that because learning personal finance in schools is not a requirement for graduation, students might be less likely to take it seriously, Troupe acknowledged.

“We are looking to see how those will impact the graduation certificate, so if you complete that it will be reflected on your national school leaving certificate, makes you more marketable.”

Incorporating personal finance as a requirement to graduate could change the course of the development of the Jamaican economy.

Troupe did not state a timeline for when financial literacy will have a permanent place in schools as a subject. She, however, said it’s being build out and an announcement for its roll out will be made when it’s completed.

“We are working with our partners now to have them convert these programmes into that platform, into that space, that will take some time, once that is done then we will launch that and give schools access.”

As other countries around the world move to make their nation-builders more financially literate, Jamaica is moving to do just the same. Although it’s not mandatory, it marks the beginning of something that could potentially be the standard for graduates and groundbreaking for a financially literate economy.