LocationsHoniara, Solomon Islands – Thirty-eight teachers from three Rural Training Centres (RTC) of the Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACoM) participated in a second round of financial education (FinEd) training on 21 July at the Garanga Rural Training Centre, Isabel Province.
Funded by the Australian Government and the United Nation’s Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme, facilitators from New Zealand and the Solomon Islands delivered teacher familiarization training for the next three modules contained in the FinEd course which was piloted earlier this year at the three rural, technical and vocational education training centres.
The modules covered in Phase 2 include personal financial risk management, credit management and assessment, financial services (banking & insurance), taxation and personal financial planning, topics which may be harder to teach for some vocational-based teachers. Facilitators provided an interactive hands-on approach to teaching the models and asked teachers to provide feedback on the classroom implementation experience for the first four modules covered during the first phase of the pilot. This feedback allows the project to evaluate the progress made by students and teachers at the three pilot rural training centres of Airahu, Garanga and Pamua.
PFIP FinEd Technical Specialist Abigail Chang handed over seven android tablets to ACOM FinEd project lead George Kokili, to assist real-time monitoring and evaluation of the project and to prevent data delays. It is understood that the ACOM Financial Education project will be the first Financial Education project in the Pacific to use digital forms and channels to innovatively collect and collate student data on a real-time basis. Ms. Chang said PFIP wanted to ensure project efficiency and timely progress reporting. She added that PFIP was pleased with the progress being made in terms of implementation to date.
The training was observed by representatives from the Central Bank of the Solomon Islands, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development and the ACoM Diocese of Isabel.
Financial Education and Financial Literacy are joint national priority areas identified within the Solomon Islands National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2016 – 2020. The strategy has set priorities to build financial resilience in households and communities by integrating basic financial education into the core school curriculum, from primary to tertiary levels, and to develop a rural financial literacy module focused on creating awareness on financial services to improve usage.
The FinEd Project is a result of findings of PFIP’s 2012 Financial Competency of Low Income Households study that found most low-income households in the Solomon Islands are unable to manage money effectively. The project also works toward the achievement of the 2020 Money Pacific Goals endorsed by Solomon Islands during the Forum Economic Ministers Meeting in 2009 and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion Maya Declaration Commitments made in 2013.
The regional FinEd project has also been implemented in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. It is envisaged that the ACOM FinEd pilot will be completed in December 2018 with lessons learnt to share in preparation for potential scaling up.
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About PFIP
PFIP is a Pacific-wide programme that has helped 1.98 million low-income Pacific islanders gain access to financial services and financial education. It achieves these results by funding innovation with financial services and delivery channels, supporting policy and regulatory initiatives, and empowering consumers.
PFIP operates from the UNDP Pacific Office in Suva, Fiji and has offices in Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Solomon Islands. It is jointly administered by the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and receives funding from the Australian Government, the European Union and the New Zealand Government.
For more information or media inquiries please contact:
Erica Lee, PFIP Communications Associate, tel: +679 3227538; email: erica.lee@undp.org; website: http://www.pfip.org;
