Teaching students how to save

DepEd's new Secretary, Jesli Lapus, has come up with an innovative thrust in secondary education: Savings consciousness for students. The idea is to teach students the value of savings as a means of attaining financial stability. To be carried out in collaboration with the Deposit Insurance Corporation, the project will include preparation of teachers' guide, production of instructional devices and training of teachers.

Teaching students how to save is a good idea. Actually, concepts on savings were taught, albeit tangentially, under the old curriculum. In our classroom at the San Nicolas Elementary School, for example, posters such as these used to be displayed: "A penny saved is a penny earned," "Save a penny for a rainy day," and the like. And do you remember the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper? It's about the jolly Grasshopper who spent summer playfully hopping here and there while the kill-joy Ant kept himself to the job of hauling foodstuffs to his dug-out. When the snows came, who do you think had the last laugh?

A story like this was part of our learning experience. Is it still taught? I asked my grandkids whether they knew about the story, but they looked at me blankly as if to say "What about it?"

No wonder most kids today don't go high for savings. Like the grasshopper they think only of today, never mind the morrow. "Que sera, sera" seems to be in their mindset. Surely, they need to be taught how to save. Side by side with the three Rs the young have to be impressed with the value of withholding current gratifications for the sake of future gains. For instance, instead of spending their "baon" for junk food and softdrink, which have little nutritional value, they should save part of it and deposit this in the nearest thrift bank.

But like all behavioral learning, there is a need for exemplars. There have to be role models in order for learning to take root. The teachers of course are expected to serve as model. Are they ready to play such role? Perhaps some are, but in general many cannot qualify. Our observation is that many teachers are handicapped in properly handling their personal funds. It is not surprising therefore that they are heavily indebted not just to one but to two or more lenders. Their paychecks are therefore depleted and were it not for the prohibition to limit the deductions, many would have ended up with negative salary warrants.

Asked why indebtedness has been their lot the immediate answer of most teachers is low pay. This may be true but only to a limited extent. Truly, the current salaries of teachers (P10,000 for new hires) are below the poverty line. In the late 1980s, when teachers' pay was last adjusted, the amount was impressive because the cost of living was not as high as today's. In those days the dollar was worth something like P20 while rice cost only about P5 per kilo. Sadly, despite the astronomical rise in the price of basic commodities, teachers' remunerations have remained generally what they used to be.

Low pay coupled with poor resource management has been the main cause of teachers' financial woes. Many are rather indiscriminate in the use of their meager pay. The result is an unbalanced budget and recourse to loan sharks becomes a necessity, a practice which only aggravates their financial problems. Restructuring teachers' salaries would not therefore rescue teachers from their calvary without first restructuring their unhealthy attitude towards the use of their personal resources.

With top-rate financial experts at the helm of DepEd leadership radical measures are in the pipeline towards stabilizing teachers' financial postures. This could be in the form of salary adjustments plus a massive reorientation on handling one's finances. Perhaps, the Secretary would also come up with non-salary initiatives such as beefing up existing teachers' cooperative, housing and others.

Here in Central Visayas Secretary Lapus could take a hard look at the National Teachers and Employees Cooperative Bank (NTECB), a bank owned by 24,000 public school teachers. Operated in the last six years, it is extending loans to teachers at only one percent per month interest. In addition, teacher-investors get a share in the net profit of the Bank, averaging P3 million in the last two years. Total asset is only P58 million, but with the entry lately of more borrowers owing to the regionalization of the payroll service of DepEd, the Bank's financial posture is expected to increase impressively.

Secretary Lapus' entry into the country's premier department is therefore a positive development. He may yet be the Moses to lead half a million teachers and employees into the land of milk and honey.

* * *

Email: [email protected]