Primary School Financial Literacy: Spend, Save, Share

The month of May is being celebrated as education month under the theme, “Financial Literacy, a Pathway to a Productive Life.” As the month winds down, there are continued activities across the country to teach children how to save. The District Education Centre in Belize District ended its week with a challenge for four primary schools: Saint Martin De Porres RC, Salvation Army, Unity Presbyterian and Ambergris Caye Elementary. Entitled “Spend, Save, Share,” the students along with their teachers came up with a product or service that may be implemented within their school setting. Students from infant one through to standard six were exposed to various aspects of financial literacy. Education Officer Erica Clother spoke about the success of the challenge.

Erica Clother

Erica Clother, Education Officer

“We sent out a challenge to schools called, “Financial Literacy – Spend, Save, Share Challenge.” Now we are looking at being financially literate, helping out students from a very young age to be financially literate. We know that children come in contact with money on a daily basis. They might not be earning per say, but they get allowances and things like that from their parents. And so we wanted to help them to build a system or start developing that financial literate sense. So we wanted them to be able to take their monies that they are getting and look at if I get five dollars from mommy this week, how much of it will I spend, how much of it will I save and how much of it will I take and give back or help out somebody in some way. So that was the whole idea behind Spend, Save, Share Challenge.”