UAP Old Mutual Group, KICD to develop financial literacy guidelines, courses for teachers

UAP Old Mutual Group and the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) have entered a partnership to boost financial literacy in the country with the development of financial literacy guidelines for junior and senior secondary school teachers under the new Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
 
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), funded by UAP Old Mutual Group, have commenced the development of financial literacy guidelines for teachers.
 
This follows the successful completion of an in-depth analysis to identify gaps in the existing financial literacy matrices in the learning curriculum.
 
The exercise being held in Naivasha, Nakuru County, is also being attended by experts from financial regulatory agencies and the education sector to support in developing the financial literacy training materials for teachers. 
 
The partnership, valued at Sh 21 million, and dubbed Old MutualLearn, Think, Do, supports efforts to integrate financial literacy into CBC, which apart from academic knowledge, seeks to impart core life skills among learners.
 
The focus on teachers is a deliberate mainstreaming strategy for Old Mutual to address the systemic challenge of the lack of technological, pedagogical, content knowledge among most teachers and trainers in the formal and non-formal education and training systems.
 
“Teacher preparation is critical in the rollout of financial literacy in the CBC. Our partnership will enable the teachers to integrate the aspects of financial literacy during the teaching and learning process. Varied strategies such as online preparation of teachers, availing of learning materials online for both teachers and learners will go a long way in ensuring effective development of financial literacy skills and capabilities, which are central to financial inclusion,” remarked Mr. Jerim Otieno Group Managing Director Life Business, UAP Old Mutual Group.
 
The pilot phase will initially see 100 teachers trained before eventually being rolled out to all teachers as part of their curriculum training. Old Mutual Limited is supporting the initiative through the UAP Old Mutual Foundation. 

The content will be available on the Kenya Education Cloud and KICD multimedia elements for access to all. The partnership was unveiled in July this year and aims at mainstreaming financial literacy in the new curriculum which is currently in the early phases of implementation.
 
”Old Mutual regards the formalization and teaching of financial skills as one of East Africa's most significant educational milestones. We firmly believe that teachers also need to understand their financial well-being to teach financial concepts well.  Old Mutual will offer financial wellbeing training to participating teachers as part of the pilot alongside this critical financial literacy training program.” added Mr. Otieno, UAP Old Mutual
 
On his part, KICD CEO Professor Charles Ong’ondo said “We are privileged to partner with UAP-OLD Mutual, particularly on financial literacy. As you are aware, we are in the process of reforming our curriculum, and one of the critical aspects of this partnership is to develop learner competency to have learners who can think, create and do. We intend to achieve this by integrating financial literacy in all learning areas, and to values hence moulding an ethical and skilled society”.
 
According to a report on Training Needs Assessment for Development of Curriculum and
Curriculum Support Materials for Financial Literacy Education in Kenyaby KICD (formerly KIE) in 2013, teachers have limited knowledge on aspects of financial literacy and are not able to train the learners on money saving and budgeting.
 
Indeed, 80% of the teachers involved in the study were not aware of the following aspects of financial literacy: risks of loss to life and possessions; saving plan and the importance of comparing different interest rates in the markets before taking a loan.
 
A majority (56%) of the learners revealed that their knowledge of financial literacy is poor, particularly in the areas of budgeting, consumer awareness, SACCOS and retirement benefits.
 
Ends……………/