As Grade Six learners are going on with their preparations for their Kenya Primary School Education Assessments (KPSEA), plans are being finalized for a financial literacy course for junior and high school teachers in February.
The programme that was designed by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and Old Mutual, financial services company, is intended to instil the ability to analyze financial resources, entrepreneurial skills that deconstruct actions that can be taken to generate more revenue, and financial skills on revenue and expenditure.
The course is aimed at equipping teachers with the skills required to integrate financial literacy topics into the curriculum of Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Besides scripting, editing, designing, and developing multimedia elements, the course covers piloting, monitoring and training.
This is expected to improve skills that reveal self-awareness, personal values, problem-solving, critical thinking, decision-making abilities, talents and skills.
The financial literacy standards specify the contextualization and conceptualization of financial literacy in line with the new curriculum.
An extensive analysis of the existing financial literacy integration informed the formulation of the financial standards.
Old Mutual has already invested Kshs. 21 Million in developing the financial literacy mainstreaming matrices, an online orientation course for teachers that is set to be accessed by more than 30 Million individuals across the African continent.
According to Arthur Oginga the Chief Executive Officer of the Group, the investment will come a long way in helping to generate greater prospects.
“This initiative is right at the heart of our objective to enable Kenyans to acquire the necessary financial skills to become economically active, meet their financial goals, and drive the development goals of our country,” said Oginga.
On his part the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the KICD said that with the continuing reforms in the education sector, the training is set to build learners’ competency, enabling an ethical and stratified society.
“As the KICD, our interest is to ensure that every learner who goes through the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) can demonstrate an awareness of resource mobilization, specifically financial mobilization, and prudent expenditure of that resource,” said Ong’ondo.
The KICD CEO believes that this will improve the ability of learners to make sound, prudent financial management among learners.
The programme is in line with the Teachers Service Commission’s (TSC) pledge of ensuring that teachers acquire skills and attributes that match the current times.
According to TSC CEO Dr Nancy Macharia, values, community service learning and contemporary challenges have been incorporated into the new curriculum.