The local bourse ÔÇô Botswana Stock Exchange Limited has increased the number of participating high schools in its annual financial literacy competition.
This is part of the bourse’s efforts to improve financial literacy amongst Botswana populace precisely the secondary schools students.
“Last year we had top 8 schools and this year we have decided to have top 10 schools to allow for more schools to participate”, said Thapelo Moribame ÔÇô the BSEL Head of Development Market at the launch of the competition in the capital Gaborone on Thursday.
Moribame said that competition is on its 7th year since inception and that the finals will be held at Travel Lodge on the 17th of this month.
The competition forms part of BSEL’s continued efforts to advocate for the introduction of financial training in schools for the improvement of financial knowledge to Batswana.
At the same time, there are numerous calls from other sectors of the society to the government to consider including financial literacy in the basic education curriculum.
The call for a consideration of financial literacy training in basic education comes at a time when a vast majority, even amongst the educated populace in Botswana, does not have basic understanding of financial principles.
In October 2017, at the BSEL Open day, Chief Executive Officer at the bourse – Thapelo Tsheole said, “It is not surprising that the level of understanding of the stock market is generally low in Botswana as traditionally the education system has been mainly focused on subjects that are not stock market related.”
To drive his point home, Tsheole gave an example of a book titled ‘Shaka Zulu’ which is still read at schools but has no value addition to students. As part of its annual activities, the BSE continue to host “open days” across the country.
