Kids' Passport to being savvy with money

A GROUP of nine-year-olds had ready answers when The Straits Times shot them this question: 'Do you know what an economic recession is?'

Hands shot up across a class of 42 Primary 3 pupils at Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School, then came their replies: 'It means downturn!', 'It's a bear market!'

This group of school subscribers to The Straits Times readily showed off what they had learnt from the news.

'The market is down today,' one piped up. 'But there are green shoots,' came another response.

The question came from Little Red Dot's editor Serene Goh at the launch of its Savings Passport yesterday, a session that featured a special 45- minute lesson at Pei Hwa conducted by Little Red Dot journalist Malini Nathan, 30.

Keen to delve into its lessons on financial literacy, pupils were rapt as Ms Nathan went through one of six assignments contained in the red booklet.

Ms Nathan, a former teacher, developed the learning exercises based on news and current events, to teach young readers how to be wise with their money, and understand the difference between a need and a want.

Assignments will get pupils to calculate discounts, wade through jargon used in advertisements and plan a budget, among other activities.

This year's Passport is the broadsheet's fourth, and available only to primary schools which subscribe to The Straits Times' Tuesday edition, which comes with Little Red Dot.

Pupils will get incentives and discounts when they complete its assignments. These include entry to popular family destinations like the Singapore Flyer, the Underwater World and the Science Centre.

Pupils also stand a chance to win a family holiday to Hong Kong Disneyland.

In addition to more than 70 subscribing schools, the Passport has also attracted other non- subscribing schools too.

In all, 68,000 pupils islandwide received their Passports yesterday - 340 of them, or the entire Primary 3 cohort, from Pei Hwa alone.

Previous Passports focused on language-centric activities such as writing picture captions and constructing sentences with words used in The Straits Times.

But this year's Passport was a direct response to the ongoing recession.

'It's all too common to hear parents lament that young people these days don't know the value of money,' said Ms Bertha Henson, The Straits Times' associate editor, who is also supervising editor of Little Red Dot.

'The Passport is a fun way to get them to do their sums. It's never too early to teach financial literacy.'

The classroom session, which involved calculating the cost for a family to eat out and how long it would take to save for it, got Gerry Wong thinking.

The bespectacled nine-year-old boy, who already tries to put aside $8 of his weekly $15 allowance, now says: 'I'll try to eat less and save more.'