Yang Berhormat Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong, Deputy Minister of Education
Distinguished Guests,
Teachers,
Members of the Press,
Ladies and Gentlemen
- It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Securities Commission for the launch of SC’s “Train the Trainer” programme for Teachers. This programme marks a significant step forward in our efforts to ensure the sustainability and reach of our investor education initiatives.
- I would like to thank very much, Yang Berhormat Datuk Wee Ka Siong, the Deputy Minister of Education, for his presence this morning and for graciously accepting our invitation to deliver the keynote address and to launch the Train the Teachers programme on behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Yang Amat Berhormat Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin bin Haji Mohd Yassin.
- The SC has always regarded investor education as a critical pillar of investor protection and an important element in the development of our capital market. Our experience over the past many years, has shown that investors are not normally aware of their rights and responsibilities as investors. Many fall prey to investment scams, and equally many are ignorant of the need for financial planning. We also noted a worrying trend of poor financial discipline and money management skills amongst young adults. Indeed, this is a concern shared globally by other regulators. With these concerns in mind, in 2007, the SC reviewed the investor education landscape and drew up an Investor Education Blueprint to provide for a more structured and long term approach towards investor education, with the clear objective of building a vigilant and knowledgeable investor base.
- The SC’s Investor Education Blueprint is premised on the belief that, firstly, investors are best protected when they are knowledgeable and vigilant of their rights and their responsibility in making investment decisions; and secondly, informed and vigilant investors will exert greater discipline on market participants and in turn reduce the cost and burden of regulation.
- Therefore, alongside the need for a responsible industry and supportive infrastructure, our efforts are directed at widening the coverage of investor education programs so as to promote nationwide financial literacy. These programs target a cross section of the public, to ensure both current and potential investors, are taken through the trajectory of learning from basic financial literacy through to financial capability.
- Through our training and education arm, the Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC), the SC has developed a range of investor education programs for various segments of the public.
These include those living in rural areas, blue collar workers, housewives, schoolchildren, university and college students as well as the general investing public.
- Children are the building blocks of our future. Inculcating sound financial literacy and discipline in a child, results in an informed and financially prudent adult with the necessary skill sets to safely participate in the capital market. The question we asked ourselves is whether and to what extent financial literacy exists in our young adults. We realized how important it is that we should have a supportive infrastructure to nurture them through the trajectory of learning. It is therefore with this in mind that we tasked SIDC in 2008, to develop and roll out the Kids & Cash and Teens & Cash programs. These programs are tailored to inculcate financial discipline in children, by enabling them to differentiate between needs and wants and to learn and understand the basic concepts of budgeting, saving and investing. The programs adopt an interactive approach to capture the children’s imagination and interest, with the result, we hope, of them absorbing and putting into practice the knowledge and skills they have acquired.
- To assess the effectiveness of the programs, a survey was conducted amongst participating children and their teachers. The results of the survey were very encouraging, showing the positive impact of these programs. 95% of the children had either started saving or increased their savings and were able to differentiate their needs from their wants. 65% of the children were able to understand the concept of investing as an integral part of money management.
- Our approach to educating young minds must be holistic. Children respond with an immediacy that looks for continuity. We must as such develop innovative and effective ways of extending the reach of our programmes in a sustainable manner.
Since the launch of our Kids & Cash and Teens & Cash workshops in 2008, we have on our own accord, reached 90,000 children and target to reach 150,000 children by 2012 – a significant coverage. However this is just the tip of the iceberg.
With nearly 5.2 million students in Malaysia, our target number comprises only 2.91% of schoolchildren nationwide. We therefore needed to explore ways of reaching out to greater numbers in order to develop a strong foundation in financial literacy and discipline.
- One of the initiatives we felt would have a most positive impact was to leverage on teachers who are a ready and valuable resource and a natural conduit for learning, by providing them with the necessary tools and incentives to enable them to become an important part of the financial literacy program. With this in mind, we developed the Train the Teacher program which we hope will ensure both the desired multiplier effect, as well as the sustainability of the support required for the journey from financial literacy to financial capability.
- Clearly the SC would not be able to achieve our objectives without the continued and strong support of the Ministry of Education and the teachers of our nation. Indeed it was with the Ministry’s consent and collaboration, that we were able to provide our programs as an extra-curricular activity, to schools in the first place, and we have covered 264 primary and secondary schools so far.
- With the ‘Train the Teacher’ programme, we hope to train at least 100 teachers every year, to help us provide the benefit of the ‘Kids & Cash’ and ‘Teens and Cash’ programs to school children nationwide, in a sustainable manner. The potential multiplier effect of the program can be significant with the cumulative effect of more teachers being trained annually. We expect that each teacher will be able to train a minimum of 100 students a year.
- With the assistance and cooperation of the Ministry of Education, the SIDC recently successfully ran pilot sessions of the ‘Train the Teacher’ program for our ‘Kids & Cash’ and ‘Teens & Cash’ workshops.
100 selected teachers from Selangor and Terengganu participated in these pilot sessions. We have received very positive feedback from the teachers. It is expected that the teachers, with the support of their principals, will run the workshops as a co-curricular activity for students, throughout the school year.
- Moving forward, we will now work with the Ministry of Education and the respective state education departments to continue this program in earnest. The program will include a mechanism to track the workshops conducted by teachers and feedback from participating children. The children and teachers will then also have access to our Malaysian Investor website for games, worksheets and follow up questions and can sign on to SIDC’s ‘Be Money Wise’ or ‘Bijak Mengurus Wang’, facebook page for an interactive experience.
- I thank and congratulate the teachers who have participated in the pilot programs and look forward to the results of their efforts in running the Kids and Cash and Teens and Cash workshops in their respective schools. I would also like to thank the school principals, without whose cooperation and support, we would not have been able to bring our programs to the schools.
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Ensuring sustainability and reach, also requires the contribution of various other government agencies and NGOs as well as the industry who have proactively played their part and committed to being our partners in this endeavor. My appreciation goes to all of them.
- The Ministry of Education deserves special mention for the support they have always extended to us. I take this opportunity to thank the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Yang Amat Berhormat Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin bin Haji Mohd Yassin and YB Datuk Wee Ka Siong for their strong support.
Our Train the Teacher Program would not have been successful otherwise.
Ladies and gentlemen,
- Thank you very much to all of you once again, for taking the time to be with us this morning. I would like to once again express my sincere appreciation to Yang Berhormat Datuk Wee Ka Siong for his presence here today. It is testimony to the importance placed by the Government, to promoting financial literacy.
Thank you.
