Financial education essential for children
Lee Song-mi, right, a second grader at Dangjin Information High School, serves a client, who is her classmate, while playing the role of a banker during Shinhan Bank’s financial education program at its education center in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, Dec. 15. / Korea Times photo by Chung Hyun-chae
Lack of education produces financial illiterates in real life
By Chung Hyun-chae
The need for financial education for children have been consistently raised by people with experience of having difficulties investing in stocks, buying insurance and even opening a bank account after years of studying economics at schools.
Currently high school students studying liberal arts choose two among nine social studies subjects, including economics, East Asian history and Korean geography, to take the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), the state-administered university entrance exam.
According to data from the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, only 2.26 percent of students chose economics for the CSAT in 2015.
“Feeling daunted, most students hesitate to study economics,” said a teacher at a Daegu-based high school.
What’s worse is that even those who opt for economics can hardly learn about finance related to real life because this only accounts for around 14 percent of the textbook.
Experts say such an education system has produced a lot of financially illiterate people.
Lack of financial education is not a concern for Koreans alone.
In January 2015, a tweet by Naina K, a 17-year old German girl, caused a nationwide debate about what students learn at schools and how relevant it is to their lives.
She wrote on Twitter, “I am almost 18 and have no idea about taxes, rent or insurance. But I can analyze a poem in four languages.”
Following the controversy over her comment, the German government decided to introduce the subject of finance related to real life at 110 high schools starting from last November.
Outside lecturers
Oh Heung-seon
In Korea, schools have been seeking outside help for financial education.
Among the experts is Oh Heung-seon, a former director of the Korea Financial Education Association and adjunct professor of the Division of Finance and Accounting at Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
“I introduce diverse careers in finance or accounting such as fund manager and analyst to middle school students during my class,” Oh said.
He provides classes tailored to needs of students at each grade level.
For example, he teaches elementary school students how to write a pocket money entry book while advising high school students, who are able to start a part-time job, on how to cope with a situation such as failing to get paid.
“I felt that financial education helped students foster personality,” Oh said, citing his experience of delivering a lecture at a juvenile prison in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province.
“After taking my class, a 15-year-old boy told me that he wanted to take a school qualification examination and obtain a welding license to make money,”Oh said. “He came to have a great dream for his life.”
Banks
Banks are at the forefront of financial education especially for the banking system.
Shinhan Bank launched a financial education program in 2012 to help students learn basic knowledge and tips on how to become financially smart.
For this, the bank established an education center in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul.
“Schools and individual students can apply for our program which is so popular that applications are closed at the moment,” Shin Yun-jin, deputy general manager of the corporate social responsibility department at the bank, said.
Since last year when all middle schools adopted a free learning semester, in which middle school first graders spend one semester without tests to explore future career paths, schools actively seek such programs to provide finance education to students.
In Shinhan’s program, students are able to play the role of both clients and bankers at the center which has exactly the same setting as a real bank.
“It is interesting to open a bank account as a bank client and issue a card as a banker,” said Lee Song-mi, 17, a second grader at Dangjin Information High School in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province. “As I have dreamed of entering banking after graduating from high school, this experience will undoubtedly help me in seeking jobs.”
For those who cannot come to the bank’s center in Seoul, Shinhan also sends bankers to schools to teach students. All branches of Shinhan throughout the nation have relationships with about 580 schools as of last year.
In the case of schools located in remote areas, the bank also sends traveling branches called Van Birds which the bank created last year.
The van is equipped with a small-scale bank branch setting so that students are able to experience banker and client roles as well.
“We focus on making classes interesting so that students can get interested in finance because finance is not so imminent an issue for them,” Shin said. “We make sure that we do not encourage students to become a banker but we explain what bankers, which we believe is the basics of career education.”
Government effort
According to the guidelines for the national curriculum which was revised in 2015 and will be implemented beginning this year, high school students will learn basic social studies and science in their first year.
“Recognizing the importance of financial education, we expanded the finance part in social studies,” Gil Hyun-joo, an educational researcher at the Ministry of Education, said.
In an effort to quell rising concerns over a lack of expertise in finance among social studies teachers, the ministry conducted training programs for 2,400 teachers from September through December last year.
“We will provide training programs for more than 5,000 teachers this year as well,” Gil said.