I REFER to the letter, "Children need to learn financial planning" by Mr Sebastian Tan (my paper, Dec 17).

Financial planning is indeed important in today's consumerist society, where students are influenced and pressured by their peers to own branded items and the latest gadgets.

At the National Institute of Education (NIE), we recognise the importance of inculcating the young with discipline and money-management skills, and have launched a "Train-the-Trainers" financial-education programme to reach students through teachers.

In collaboration with Citi Foundation, NIE launched the Citi-NIE Financial Literacy Hub for Teachers (The Hub) in October last year.

A nationwide financial-education programme for school teachers, The Hub offers two tracks - educating teachers and empowering them to manage their own finances, and training them to educate their students in money management.

Since The Hub's launch, it has reached out to more than 1,000 teachers and 100,000 students from over 100 secondary schools in Singapore.

Besides conducting financial- literacy courses, The Hub worked with schools to conduct financial-literacy cluster carnivals and a camp, which served as effective platforms for learning financial-literacy tips in a fun way.

The inaugural Citi-NIE Financial Education conference for schools was held on Nov 21 and 22, where schools shared best practices in developing, delivering and evaluating financial- education initiatives.

In The Hub's first year, 1,140 teachers went through financial- literacy courses and 13 cluster events were organised for schools in Singapore.

The Hub has also extended its outreach beyond schools to the public through financial-literacy bazaars and community- outreach carnivals held at a shopping centre and at community centres.

Moving forward, The Hub will continue to work closely with schools and stakeholders to reach out to students and teachers to impart financial knowledge and build a money- wise society.

Dr Koh Noi Keng
Chairman
Citi-NIE Financial Literacy Hub Humanities & Social Studies
Education National Institute of Education

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