Cheryl Goodenough
The scene is a reminder of the television advert where all the babies are doing adult-like tasks. These children are not so young, but they are dressed in “grown-up” clothes, carry briefcases and are busy with tasks such as filling in deposit slips, withdrawing money or assisting customers who want to open bank accounts. This grade seven class is performing one of the tasks found in the financial literacy material produced as a result of a partnership between the specialist financial services and banking group BoE, through its NBS division, and St Mary’s Interactive Learning Experience (Smile), an NGO based in Durban.
Some of the children find it easy to play the roles of tellers, financial managers, customers, ATM users or security officials. But for others these tasks are a lot more difficult. At one school where the grade seven money programme was taught last year only two out of 100 pupils had been into a bank. Such instances have provided NBS with the opportunity to open up their banks as classrooms for visiting schools.
The financial literacy programme is one component of the Smile initiative. Started in 1991 by former teachers Daniela Browne and Lynda Swinbourn, Smile aims to assist children who are taught in their second language: English.
Since then Smile has developed about 20 programmes that are run around the country and have been accepted by six education departments. The programme provides assistance to teachers for about six months during which time staff from Smile run workshops, demonstrate skills in the classroom and then observe the teacher carrying out the lessons. All material is printed and compiled on the Smile premises by a group of women employed as part of an empowerment process.
The BoE initiative was first developed in 1998 “to take the learner from basic financial literacy to economic understanding and whole-life financial management”, according to BoE’s group social responsibility manager, Gertrud Lomas-Walker. About 100 schools are currently using the grade seven and grade eight programmes and more than 10000 pupils have benefited from the money programme alone.
The grade seven programme includes lessons on the concept and history of money. The children learn vocabulary such as “money”, “trade”, “barter” and “payment”. They are taught about banks, saving and spending, higher purchases and lay-byes as well as budgeting. The programme comes in the form of several books, including a workbook for the pupils, which contains exercises concerned with listening, speaking, reading and writing.
The sequel to the money programme is entitled World of Business and is for grade eight pupils. Developed to foster economic understanding, the programme teaches business skills and values. Modules cover business ethics, entrepreneurship and career orientation information. Currently material for grade nine learners is being piloted. It includes lessons on decision-making, business opportunities, imports and exports, and consumer awareness.
In addition, a financial literacy manual for bank staff, NGOs, community-based organisations and adult learners has been compiled.
Browne applauds the partnership with NBS saying that it brought together the objectives of the Smile initiative and the goals of NBS and BoE. “We teach English through the medium of a financial literacy programme.”
BoE’s CEO Tom Boardman says that the company is well positioned to make a meaningful contribution to ensure that learners, educators, adults, community groups and non-profit organisations have access to critical financial life-skills education. “BoE believes that as a financial services organisation, we can play a meaningful role in the development of financial literacy skills, consumer education of communities and in helping to develop a savings culture.”