Even as Grade Six pupils prepare to sit for national exams, plans are afoot to start off a financial literacy course for junior and senior secondary school teachers in February next year.
The programme by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and financial services company, Old Mutual, aims at instilling the ability to analyse financial resources, entrepreneurial skills that unpack activities that one can do to generate more revenue, and financial skills which cover revenue and expenditure.
The course is designed to equip teachers with the capacity to effectively implement the financial literacy concepts that are to be mainstreamed into the curriculum during the learning process.
Once the pilot phase is complete, the course will be rolled out to at least 100 teachers for a pilot phase in five counties.
Other areas covered in the course include scripting, editing, designing, developing multimedia elements, piloting, monitoring, and training.
This will enhance self-exploration skills that unpack self-awareness, personal values, problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making skills, talents, and abilities. Its development comes six months after the two institutions completed the development of the financial literacy guidelines, which outlined how financial literacy is contextualised and conceptualised from a curriculum perspective.
This step was preceded by an analysis of integration matrices, and an in-depth analysis of existing financial literacy integration to identify gaps.
The strategy targets over 30 million people across Africa, with the financial institution pumping Sh21 million into developing the financial literacy mainstreaming matrices, the online orientation course for tutors.
Arthur Oginga, the Group CEO, says the investment will help to unlock more opportunities and value for many communities.
''This initiative is right at the heart of our objective to enable Kenyans to acquire the necessary financial skills to become economically active, meet their financial goals, and drive the development goals of our country," Oginga said.
KICD Chief Executive Officer, Prof Charles Ong'ondo, said, with the ongoing reforms in the education sector, the training will develop learner competency which will enable an ethical and scaled society.
"As KICD, our interest is to ensure that every learner who goes through the Competency-Based Curriculum can demonstrate an awareness of resource mobilisation, specifically financial mobilisation, and prudent expenditure of that resource,'' said Ong'ondo, who believes this will lead to sound, prudent, and financial management among learners.
The government had undertaken a wide range of reforms for the smooth delivery of the new curriculum.
Teachers Service Commission CEO, Nancy Macharia said teachers are expected to acquire skills and competencies that match the 21st Century needs.
''A deliberate move has been made to embed values, community service learning, and pertinent and contemporary issues in the curriculum,'' Macharia said.
