DepEd expands financial education in K to 12 to improve literacy of Filipinos

With a vision of a financially literate nation, the Department of Education (DepEd), through the Bureau of Curriculum Development (BCD), has expanded and intensified the integration of financial education in the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum to improve the financial literacy and capability of its learners, teachers, and personnel which will enable them to acquire financial health and financial inclusion.

Recent studies show that Filipinos struggle to understand basic financial concepts, with a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) survey showing that 41% of Filipinos can only answer one of three financial literacy questions correctly and a meager eight percent can answer three.

With this, DepEd issued its Financial Education Policy under DepEd Order No. 022, Series of 2021 which aims to help learners and teaching and non-teaching personnel to make sound financial decisions by making Financial Education an essential part of school lessons and activities for learners and provision of capability building opportunities for teaching and non-teaching personnel.

“Financial Education is vital in developing a financially literate citizenry, empowering them to make wise financial decisions, take advantage of economic opportunities, and achieve financial health” explained Education Chief Leonor Magtolis Briones. “Financial literate citizens can contribute more productively to inclusive growth and be more effective agents of nation building,” she added.

Under the said policy, the National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP), the Teacher Education Council (TEC) – Secretariat for teachers-in-training, and the Bureau of Human Resource and Organizational Development (BHROD) will give appropriate capacity and competency building activities to teachers, leaders, teachers-in-training, and non-teaching personnel.

The trainings will address both professional development and personal training needs of DepEd personnel and equip them with knowledge on financial education concepts, core messages as well as helping them to hone their own financial management skills which is anchored on the objective of DepEd in producing financially literate and debt free teaching and non-teaching force.

Meanwhile, learners will be taught key financial concepts and skills on earning, saving, spending, budgeting, donating, investing, planning, consumer protection and entrepreneurship. They will also learn and understand the value of money and resources, how they are acquired, how to plan and manage assets, and how to save and share.

Learners will also be taught how to open a savings account and help manage their resources prudently, which helps them apply these concepts in real life – which is one of the policy’s key objectives.

According to BCD Director Jocelyn Andaya, the financial concepts and core messages shall be integrated without changing the existing learning competencies in the learning areas of K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum. There shall be no changes in the content standards of each learning area during the integration process.’

Director Andaya also encouraged educators to be ‘’reflective, flexible, creative, and innovative” in the delivery of lessons by using drills, exercises, activities, examples of real-life financial experiences and concepts, valuing the process of making financial decisions, contextualized financial situations, and environment, and other performance output.’

Serving as a guide for both public and private school heads and teachers, the policy covers all learners from public and private elementary, junior and senior high schools, learning centers for Special Education (SPEd) and Alternative Learning Systems (ALS), and Indigenous Learning Systems and Madrasah Education Program while the Laboratory Schools of State Colleges and Universities (SUCs) and Local Colleges and Universities (LUCs) are encouraged to adopt this policy.