Panama Collaborates with Banking Institution to Promote Financial Education in Schools

City of Panama/The Ministry of Education (Meduca) and the Superintendency of Banks of Panama (SBP) are working together to implement the pilot plan for the implementation of the National Financial Education Strategy (ENEF) in official schools in Panama.

César Castillo, Deputy Director General of Educationexplained that the objective is to ensure that students have knowledge and learn to cultivate the habit of saving and correctly use the resources they have.

As part of this initiative, workbooks have been developed for primary school students, with the purpose of teaching them basic concepts about the responsible use of financial resources and promoting the culture of savings, from an early age.

According to the pilot plan, the program will impact approximately 50,000 students and 900 teachers.

The booklets will be delivered to 40 selected educational establishments.among them: the Dr. Belisario Porras School, in Central Panama; Villa Milagro, in North Panama; Bilingual El Zapallal, in Darién; Los Molejones General Basic Education Center, in the province of Coclé; among others.

These materials include manuals for educators that cover topics such as caring for belongings, local needs, compensation for work, responsibility and saving resources, responsible use of family money, among others. Later, the program will be expanded to other schools.

The pilot plan for the implementation of the National Financial Education Strategy seeks positive results and that, by 2024, the materials will be contextualized and brought to seventh, eighth and ninth grade students. promoting the fundamental principles of financial education, instilling savings habits, reducing debt, encouraging the evaluation of financial initiatives and facilitating mediation in financial matters, among others.

The creation and adaptation of this educational material has been supervised by Meduca specialists, coming from various areas such as Curriculum and Educational Technology, General Basic Education, Secondary Academic Education and Professional and Technical Education, from the SBP and the German Sparkassenstiftung Latin America and the Caribbean . This collaboration ensures that the content is appropriate and effective for teaching.