Legislator hopes financial literacy taught in public schools next year

FILE: Senator Bam Aquino (Photo: Bam Aquino/ Facebook)

MANILA — To equip students with knowledge in managing their finances, a senator has expressed hope that money management and business training would be taught in public schools starting next school year.

“We hope that by next school year, financial literacy and entrepreneurship would be taught in our public schools,” Sen. Bam Aquino said in a press statement.

Aquino made this statement during the recent forum on entrepreneurship education where he informed participants that the Youth Entrepreneurship Act has already been enacted into law as Republic Act (RA) No. 10679 in 2015.

He was the principal sponsor and co-author of RA 10679 in the Senate as chairman of the Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship in the 16th Congress.

The law encourages young would-be entrepreneurs to establish their own business by providing them access to capital and other support.

Moreover, it also creates financial literacy modules in all levels of Philippine education to inculcate a culture of enterprise development among the Filipino youth.

Aquino stressed the need to teach financial literacy, saying the country ranked 68th in the world in terms of financial literacy in 2015, way behind its neighbors Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Furthermore, he said a 2015 survey by Standard & Poor’s revealed that only 25 percent of Filipino adults are knowledgeable on basic money management.

At present, Aquino said the Department of Education is finalizing the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for RA 10679.