As part of the Cen­tral Bank’s 60th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions, over 1,500 stu­dents from 24 pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools across Trinidad par­tic­i­pat­ed in the bank’s School Out­reach Week pro­gramme. The fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy ini­tia­tive taught stu­dents mon­ey man­age­ment, bud­get­ing, and how to dis­cern and un­der­stand the fea­tures of lo­cal ban­knotes prop­er­ly.

Those in at­ten­dance al­so learnt about the roles and func­tions of the bank and were giv­en a tour of the Cen­tral Bank Mu­se­um.

Stu­dents were lat­er test­ed on their new­ly ac­quired knowl­edge through com­pe­ti­tions such as, Say It to Win It.

They al­so took part in a singing com­pe­ti­tion.

Those cho­sen were met with loud cheers and ap­plause from oth­er stu­dents, re­gard­less of the schools to which they be­longed.

Fa­cil­i­ta­tor with the Na­tion­al Fi­nan­cial Lit­er­a­cy Pro­gramme, Ar­lene Pop­plewell con­duct­ed a pre­sen­ta­tion where she ad­vo­cat­ed for “mon­ey smarts” to be taught from pri­ma­ry to ter­tiary-lev­el ed­u­ca­tion.

“I am a firm be­liev­er that fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy should be taught in schools from pri­ma­ry to ter­tiary be­cause I think it is im­por­tant for us to un­der­stand how to treat with mon­ey,” Pop­plewell said.

Pop­plewell asked mon­ey-re­lat­ed ques­tions to the stu­dents, try­ing to de­ter­mine their at­ti­tude and be­hav­iour to­wards sav­ing mon­ey and if they un­der­stood cer­tain ter­mi­nolo­gies re­gard­ing the us­age of mon­ey. She ad­vised them to start sav­ing in ad­vance be­fore com­mit­ting to ter­tiary ed­u­ca­tion. She taught them to dis­tin­guish be­tween their needs, like cloth­ing and shel­ter and wants like iPhones and gam­ing de­vices.

“Do you have fi­nan­cial goals?” Pop­plewell asked, prob­ing for re­spons­es.

She went on to in­form them that be­yond sim­ply work­ing for a busi­ness to earn a salary, they could cre­ate their own busi­ness­es, sell­ing their own goods and ser­vices.

“You could al­so earn in­come...You could have a side hus­tle, an­oth­er job that you have that in­creas­es your in­come. You have a salary and do some­thing on the side to get an ad­di­tion­al in­come,” Pop­plewell said.

Econ­o­mist Na­tal­ie Thomas, who works in the Cen­tral Bank’s Re­search De­part­ment, spoke about nine key roles role and func­tions used by the bank to pro­tect and guard the econ­o­my, which in­clud­ed con­duct­ing mon­e­tary pol­i­cy and pro­mot­ing fi­nan­cial sta­bil­i­ty.

“The Cen­tral Bank is a pro­tec­tor and a guard, and a guard in the econ­o­my. Pic­ture us as a fire­fight­er out­ing fires with­in an econ­o­my and a fi­nan­cial sys­tem to en­sure every­thing runs smooth­ly and that every­thing is okay,” Thomas said.

The fi­nan­cial ini­tia­tive which be­gan on Mon­day, June 3 came to an end last Fri­day.

Stu­dents from Pa­lo Seco Sec­ondary, Guayaguare High School, St Stephens Col­lege, Mara­bel­la South Sec­ondary, Ari­ma Cen­tral Sec­ondary and Vish­nu Boys’ Hin­du Col­lege at­tend­ed the last ses­sion of the out­reach pro­gramme.