The Bank of Russia and the Ministry of Education and Science (Minobrnauka) combine efforts to improve financial literacy among Russian citizens
On 13 April 2017, Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina and Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Olga Vasilieva signed a Road Map designed to incorporate financial literacy subjects in the programmes run by Russian educational institutions. The Road Map was signed during the 4th Moscow International Education Fair (MIEF). This was the first year the Bank of Russia took part in MIEF.
The document drafted by the interagency working group envisages that the following tasks will be accomplished in 2017-2018, namely: developing proposals on teaching the basics of financial literacy in pre-school establishments, introducing amendments to current elementary, main, secondary, vocational and higher education curricula, and elaborating methodological recommendations for teachers across all levels including extra-curricular education. The task set for 2019-2020 involves the preparation of proposals to include financial literacy topics in the testing and assessment materials used for the unified state exam. Professional competitions and thematic academic tournaments will be conducted with the aim of increasing motivation among pupils, students and teachers.
“The Bank of Russia considers the improvement of financial literacy to be of paramount importance”, noted Elvira Nabiullina. “We are of the belief that people today must be equipped with the knowledge and practical skills enabling them to cope with the range of situations that arise when they acquire financial products or services. These include: loans, property or life insurance, decisions regarding pension savings or the optimal way to manage their personal savings. It is evident that individuals need to understand financial products and services, and know about the obligations that may arise and existing risks and opportunities. I am grateful to the Ministry of Education and Science for our joint efforts which promote the financial literacy initiative in educational institutions as a full-fledged and large-scale programme rather than an isolated campaign, albeit of recurrent nature.”
Minister of Education and Science Olga Vasilieva stressed that the agreement between the ministry and the Bank of Russia will form the basis for further regional agreements because financial literacy will be incorporated into educational standards across all levels.
The Bank of Russia’s display at MIEF presents various materials on the key areas of activity conducted by the regulator to raise financial literacy and on results achieved thus far.
Visitors can learn about school programmes which, at the Bank of Russia's proposal, have been up-dated to include a financial literacy module in the Economics sector within the mandatory subject Social Sciences. The display also features a set of teaching and methodological materials on the basics of financial literacy which has been prepared and published with the support of the Bank of Russia. These materials are already in use in thousands of Russian schools. Guests can also familiarise themselves with draft educational programmes designed to train and re-train financial literacy teachers and improve their professional qualifications. Methodological recommendations have been prepared to help teachers incorporate the basics of financial literacy into school curricula in compulsory, elective or extra-curricular lessons.
At the end of last year, the Bank of Russia also launched a pilot project introducing the basics of financial literacy in 72 Russian regions. The number of participants in the project should reach 500 schools across all the RF constituent territories by the end of 2017. With the regulator's support, the Academy of Professional Development and Re-training of Educators under the Minobrnauka of Russia offered an educational course that has already been attended by over 300 tutors. Accordingly, Moscow teacher training institutes have also included financial literacy modules into their training programmes for Social Sciences teachers.
On the first day of MIEF on 12 April, the Bank of Russia conducted a Strategy Session entitled ‘Financial Literacy at Schools’. The session involved discussion of a range of issues: selecting the best methods to teach financial literacy at school, improving teacher training and their professional skills, the possibility of including financial literacy topics in the set of testing and assessment materials used in Social Sciences, and interdisciplinary links and the use of real-life financial problems in Mathematics lessons.
