News & Event

The financial culture symposium "Towards School Students' Awareness of Financial Culture’s Principles" begins tomorrow, Wednesday, morning. The symposium is implemented by the Ministry of Education, represented by the Khazna Project (Instilling Principles of Financial Culture in School Students) under the patronage of HE Dr. Said bin Mohammed Al Saqri, Minister of Economy, and in the presence of HE Dr. Madiha bint Ahmed Al Shaibaniyah, Minister of Education, and a number of Their Highnesses, Their Excellencies, and honorable members of the State Council, Their Excellencies members of the Shura Council, Undersecretaries of Ministries, and Directors-General. The symposium continues for two consecutive days at the Kempinski Hotel Al Mouj.

The symposium is attended by representatives of international and Arab organizations, relevant ministries and government institutions, the Central Bank of Oman and banking sector institutions, higher education institutions, private sector institutions, a number of researchers and economic analysts in the financial field, a number of educators including school principals, teachers, and career guidance specialists from various educational directorates in the governorates, in addition to a number of employees of the Ministry’s General Diwan and school students.

On the importance of holding this symposium, HE Majid bin Said Al Bahri, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Administrative and Financial Affairs, Chairman of the Main Committee of the Khazna Project and the Main Committee for Organizing the Financial Culture Symposium, said: “The symposium is held based on the importance of instilling principles of financial culture among school students, and the Ministry’s keenness to raise awareness of it as one of the requirements of sustainable development in its various social and economic aspects; which is followed by reaching the highest level of productive, cultural and educational efficiency in school education, and in line with Oman Vision 2040, which stressed the need to focus on spreading awareness about financial culture among school students, and preparing a generation capable of keeping pace with current economic developments, and adapting to them in the future.”

HE added: “This symposium aims to highlight the role of education in developing awareness of financial culture among school students, and to benefit from international and regional experiences that have adopted financial culture to support sustainable development and to benefit from them in building a clear strategy for financial education in the Sultanate of Oman. It also aims to enhancing international educational cooperation between the Ministry of Education and international educational institutions concerned with school education and activating the role of community partnership with the government and private sectors with regard to financial culture among school students.”

The symposium activities on the first day beginswith the opening of the exhibition accompanying the symposium, under the patronage of HE Majid Al Bahri, Undersecretary of the Ministry for Administrative and Financial Affairs, which addresses students’ creativity in the field of financial culture. It consists of five knowledge villages: Khazna, Little Trader, Smart Investor, Artificial Intelligence, Outputs of the Gulf Student Forum on Financial Culture, in addition to the Banking Village and a Live Studio in Financial Culture.

This is followed by the official opening of the symposium under the patronage of HE Dr. Said Al Saqri. The opening kicks-off with the Ministry’sspeech, a video presentation on the Ministry’s efforts in financial culture, in addition to a financial harvest segment in the Finances Academy program implemented by the project in cooperation with Bank Muscat. Andreas Schleicher, Director of Learning and Skills at the OECD, then, presents the symposium’s keynote paper.

The symposium addresses (5) main themes during its two days: financial culture in education to achieve sustainable development, financial culture and its integration into school education programs, the role of financial technology in enhancing financial culture, financial culture and its role in creativity, innovation, regional and international leadership and business, and models of pioneering regional and international experiences in financial culture. Several dialogue sessions are held during which a number of working papers are presented, discussion panels, and (12) training sessions for students in grades (1-12) presented by a group of experts and specialists in enhancing financial awareness, with (6) training sessions on each day of the symposium. In addition,concurrent activities of the symposium are implemented in the educational directorates in the governorates, and accompanying activities are implemented in cooperation with the banking sector during the second day of the symposium, which are represented by student visits to the bank, especially the children’s branch at Oman Arab Bank, as well astraining sessions for students in the academies of Bank Muscat, Bank Sohar and Bank Dhofar.