Skopje, 1 September 2023  

Financial education enables better understanding of financial products, concepts and risks, as well as development of the ability to make sound financial decisions, thus contributing to greater social prosperity. Therefore, financial education is considered one of the strategic priorities of the National Bank, with special attention being paid to the education of young people, who are the backbone of the society future. This was emphasized by the Governor Anita Angelovska Bezoska at the meeting with Berin Muhamed, President of the Union of High School Students. The meeting was also attended by the Vice Governor Ana Mitreska and the Chief Economist Aneta Krstevska, as well as the representatives of the Union of High School Students, Ana Mladenova, Iva Trpeski, Vlatko Stojkoski, Ana Boshkova, Gent Bina and Filip Najdovski

In recent years, the National Bank has been making a lot of  efforts to improve financial education and inclusion, in line with the First National Strategy in this area, adopted by the financial regulators and led by the National Bank. Moreover, the National Bank activities take into account the results of the National Bank Survey, which showed that about half of younger population have partial knowledge in money management. Most of them learn about money management from their family, while as for the method of education, they believe that they can best acquire financial knowledge through classical lectures, combined with educational materials on the Internet and video materials.

At the meeting, the representatives of the Union pointed out the financial education is one of the priorities of the high school students, emphasizing the need to introduce financial education into the formal educational process. At the meeting, the representatives of the Union of High School Students presented their publication "Study of Civic and Financial Education, Media Literacy and Debate in High Schools as a Prerequisite for Building Active Citizens", which reviews the key areas where young people need to enrich their formal education, for the purpose of their greater involvement and activity. The inclusion of financial education in the educational process is a commitment of the National Bank, as well, which could be materialized by studying this matter as a separate subject or by larger inclusion of certain segments in the current subjects (although it is currently partially included in primary and secondary education). This is envisaged as a special activity in the Strategy for Financial Education and Financial Inclusion, which is a reason for constant cooperation with the Education Development Bureau at the Ministry of Education and Science.

The meeting with the Union of High School Students is part of the overall commitment of the National Bank to provide for financial education of young people, which is the reason for carrying out several activities on a regular basis for high school students, the information of which can be found on the following LINK.