Beyond math: A new approach to money skills

A new financial literacy programme that is set to roll out in government schools across South Africa will teach learners the IQ and the EQ of money and how these two elements affect their approach to money and saving.

The Rethink Rands Financial Literacy Programme will provide high school learners with the tools and understanding needed to manage their finances effectively and reinvent their money habits.

What makes the programme particularly unique in a school setting is that while it will cover standard financial concepts such as budgeting, saving and credit, it will also teach learners about how their emotions and habits can affect their financial decision-making.

The programme will be implemented by youth-development leader Primestars and the YouthStart Foundation.

By bringing in concepts of behavioural economics, the education material teaches learners to manage their emotions, biases, and behaviours to increase self-control and avoid financial self-sabotage – because understanding how psychology affects financial choices is just as vital as grasping technical concepts.

Behavioural economics highlights principles like ‘present bias’ – which is the tendency to prioritise immediate rewards over future ones. Understanding a concept like this can help encourage learners to save rather than spend, for example.

Rethink Rands is the most recent educational innovation from Primestars, which has over a decade of experience in running programmes for learners. It aims to reach 12 000 learners in grades 10–12 and will start in October. Run over three months, Rethink Rands will include an edutainment film screened at cinemas, an activity booklet, money mentors, and digital learning activities. It will also include baseline assessments so that learnings from the programme can be assessed and monitored.

The programme is designed to help learners develop habits that lead to positive financial achievements by focusing on entrepreneurship, behavioural economics, and understanding the psychology of financial decision-making.

“Rethink Rands is an opportunity to foster a generation where entrepreneurship, passive income, investments, and generational wealth are the norms,” says Martin Sweet, the MD of Primestars.