* Financial literacy: the ability to understand how money works in the world: how someone manages to earn or make it, how that person manages it, how he/she invests it (turn it into more) and how that person donates it to help others. More specifically, it refers to the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources.
It's a pretty logical effort to support. While we hope as parents through home life and through schooling our children learn the value of money, it quite often isn't the case. And while the world shouldn't revolve around it, money, like it or not, plays an important role in society.
The Government of Saskatchewan has announced it is stepping up efforts to encourage financial literacy in Saskatchewan schools, along with other forms of learning.
"Literacy comes in many forms. Reading and writing might be first to come to mind but equally important are community, family and financial literacy," says the provinces Education Minister Russ Marchuk.
After all, what good is learning to make money if we never learn to manage it?
The Ministry of Education supports the education and life-long learning of financial literacy through both the K-12 system provincial curricula, and through its library and literacy programs.
The Building Futures Project, a collaborative effort among the Ministry of Education, Canadian Foundation for Economic Education and Ministry of the Economy proposes to integrate a basic economic and financial education, and enterprising skills and abilities, into the core K-12 curriculum in Saskatchewan.
Through its support to libraries and literacy, the Ministry of Education is also providing funding to partnering community based organizations to deliver programs that support financial literacy for mature students.
"We believe in providing learning opportunities for all members of our province," Marchuk adds. "This is why the Government of Saskatchewan supports a number of initiatives that promote and develop a highly skilled and literate population. And, why we will continue to honour initiatives such as the Canadian Financial Literacy Month."
Good plan. It's easy to earn and to spend, but it's a skill to spend wisely. The more we can educate on this level, the better off we all shall be.
