WHY MONEY 101 IS A MUST FOR ALL

Honour Chokote, university student

Learning financial skills will help them once they grow up. If you don’t manage your money and finances properly, you end up being frustrated, because you may have money one day and the next day your pockets could be empty — leaving you wondering where you spent all of your money. Once you have good financial skills, you’ll learn how to budget, how to use your finances properly, and you’ll allocate your money wisely.

Sonia Prem, parent

It’s a day-to-day skill. Nowadays, kids are equipped practically well enough with handling cash and being aware of expenses, importance of money spent, and the priority for what they would like to spend on. Ninety per cent of children leave home and study abroad; hence, they are put into the real situation of paying bills, handling bank payments, and keeping track of their payment due dates. For example, my daughter is in her third university year and has never dealt with bills or banks or credit and debit cards while in school, but it’s amazing to see her handling her money well now.

Sami Geier, grade 12 student

I think that learning these real-life skills are essential as part of the modernday’s educational system. Our school has recently recognised this, and so this year we have begun a mandatory course known as moral education and advisory, which deals with such real-life skills. For instance, our seniors are currently working on budgeting for our university plans. These types of skills are often overlooked, and so addressing them directly will better us as a society.

Shruti Sharma, university student

I think it’s the need of the hour to educate children on relevant life skills such as money management at the school level, because speaking from experience, I personally found myself in a quandary when I moved to the hostel in university. I had made quite a few mistakes when it came to money management, some of which could have definitely been avoided had we been imparted some education on the topic in school. These skills set a strong foundation for children.