Blog: Financial Literacy Caravans

Last 2013, I was fortunate enough to have been invited as part of the pool of speakers of an organization called Junior Confederation of Finance Associations – Philippines. This student organization is an alliance of different college-based student organizations of Finance majors, from many different parts of the Philippines. The organization divides its chapters by geographical regions, such as NCR, Cagayan, Davao, Ilocos, Central Luzon, and others. One of their projects, spearheaded by then Externals Vice President and now De La Salle University alumna Zarah Margareth “Megg” Virtucio, and then President and DLSU student Ma. Concepcion “Mico” Lapuz, was the Financial Literacy Caravan (FLC). The FLC aimed to raise awareness on financial literacy among college students. The caravan was held in different regions of the Philippines, including NCR, Tuguegarao, Pampanga, Davao and Ilocos Sur, among other places. Various speakers shared their thoughts, insights and experiences about different aspects of personal finance, such as investing, insurance, debt management, among other topics. An open forum followed the talks. Special mention should be given to Izolde Aretha “Iah” Quintos of University of St. Louis Tuguegarao, Yuri Castro Revilla of the University of Mindanao, Davao City, and Julia-Ann Mabanta of the University of Pangasinan, and their teams for organizing very successful and well-attended forums in their chapters.

Another notable project that a DLSU-based student organization once conducted was its Financial Literacy Mission, which was held in a public high school in Legarda, Manila. The project, spearheaded by DLSU alumna Sanmae Gan, attempted to teach basic budgeting skills to high school students. The Financial Literacy Mission began with a “plenary session,” where concepts such as Needs and Wants were discussed. After the “plenary,” students were broken down into groups, each with a college student volunteer to discuss basic budgeting. Part of the workshop involved the students being honest about how they earned money or where they got the money, and how they spent it. Being the facilitator of the session, I learned a lot of valuable lessons from the students. For instance, I saw how some high school students earn money by selling food and wares on weekends. On a sadder side, I saw first-hand how the students waste a significant portion of their allowance or income on computer shops and load. I also saw how some students spend their money on vices, and how one student was “entrepreneurial” enough to buy cigarettes wholesale, and retail the sticks to some of his friends. This resulted in his cigarette being free, and a small profit from operations.

These two brilliant student-led initiatives show the importance of financial literacy, especially in the formal school curriculum. As of now, financial literacy has only been integrated in Math problems and Economics problems in high school, but with the current reform in the curriculum, I believe that finance should be a subject required for all high school students. That way, students can be formally taught on the basics of money management, debt management, inflation, investments, and other financial realities. The learning outcome of this subject would be wiser financial decision-making, which can help Filipinos become wiser spenders and better investors.

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The author teaches subjects under Interdisciplinary Studies, and Finance and Accounting Department at the Ateneo de Manila University. He can be reached via email at [email protected] for queries.