Tagum Coop tops in financial literacy

Home-grown Tagum Cooperative recently received its newest award as the nation’s leading cooperative in implementing a financial literacy program in schools.

         

 Tagum Cooperative Youth  Program Officer Clyjenee Dairo this morning revealed that Tagum Cooperative was cited as  the “2011 Top Aflatoun Cooperative”  during the 35th general assembly of the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) and 11th Coop Congress on May 25 in Cebu City.

       

   Among the 100  Aflatoun cooperative implementers,  Tagum Cooperative was cited for its active and well-supported implementation of the financial literacy program which had solicited a strong backing from the Department of Education Tagum City Schools Division.

    

      Aflatoun is a concept of “teaching children about social values, and rights and responsibilities coupled with basic financial education.”

       Tested in India 18 years ago, the Aflatoun concept is also aimed at facilitating the “inclusion of Child Social and Financial Education into formal and informal education systems as a recognition of child’s rights.”

      Tagum Cooperative Board of Directors chairperson, Norma Pereyras cited the Aflatoun as one of the major youth programs of Tagum Cooperative  which aims to instill savings consciousness among children and youth whom it wants to mold as “financially secured leaders who can make a difference.”         

      DepEd Tagum City Schools Division Superintendent  Nenita Lumaad calls  the Aflatoun implementation in Tagum City as Financial Literacy for the Youth (FLY)  which  the division started rolling out in seven Tagum City public schools in July last year.

  

    Tagum Cooperative with DepEd Tagum City Schools Division pilot-tested it in  Tagum City public elementary schools particularly in  Rizal,  Mankilam,  Pilot, La Filipina, Laureta, Apokon and Catalan.

  

    From 2,167 in November last year,  Aflatoun membership reached 4,567 members as of March this year, generating P1.1 million savings.  

  

    The figure, however, is just a fraction of the P30,664,122 total savings (as of March 2012) from the 24,199 young savers of Tagum Cooperative.

   

   Dairo, however,  projected Aflatoun membership and savings to pick up this school year 2012-2013 as Tagum Cooperative  sets to roll out to six more public schools in Davao City, particularly in central schools of Mintal, Tugbok, Talomo and elementary schools of San Roque, Porras, and in Don Juan Elementary School.

  

    “We are targeting 90 percent membership of the total population of pupils in (Aflatoun) project sites,” she said in an interview.

  

     Tagum City DepEd Schools Division plans of bringing  the Aflatoun Program to public seven secondary schools in the city now that  a module of teaching it among high school students has already been produced.

   

   Lumaad  looks at financial literacy as a shift  from honing students to become mere employees but employers as well. She wants to  arm students  with skills they can bank on to become financially secure aside from excelling academically.  

     Meanwhile, Lumaad recalled how Aflatoun started in Tagum City as she noted the financial difficulties among public school teachers.

  

   “They didn’t know how to budget their money,” she recalled her observation among teachers in her division. “As it would be too late to teach the teachers, we thought of instilling financial literacy among the children,” she said.

    After 11 years in implementation, Aflatoun  is seen to have etched savings consciousness among its elementary-pupil members . 

  

  “If they receive money on special occasions, they now think of how much to save instead of thinking what to buy,”  she said citing testimonies of Aflatoun members in one of the Aflatoun educational activities

  

   In regularly collecting savings deposits in schools, Tagum Cooperative roving teller Syvel Condor also noted  that Aflatoun members  have come to learn to fill in deposits at an early age, and that they are regularly putting in savings to their accounts.

  

   “They fill in deposit slips, we enter their savings and print them on their own passbooks, be they P5.00 or few pesos from their daily allowances,” she said. (PIA-XI/ Jeanevive Duron-Abangan)