On Monday, 4 June 2018, on the premises of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development organised, together with its project partners, the presentation of six handbooks for teachers in the field of financial literacy in Serbia. The presented handbooks are one of the initial stages of the FinPis project, which aims to include financial literacy into the education system of the Republic of Serbia, which was addressed at the very beginning by Mladen Šarčević, Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development and Gordana Stepić, Advisor to the Minister. On that occasion, they emphasised the Ministry's strategic goals as well as the key activities implemented, including the first training for teachers held on 26 May. The start of implementation in schools was announced for September 2018, when 1260 teachers will work with 15,000 children from 34 schools and 8 pre-school institutions across the country, developing their financial literacy through cross-subject competencies.
The attending parties were also addressed by Dr Slađana Sredojević, Special Advisor for International Cooperation, Head of the Bank Training Centre and Coordinator of the ASB Initiatives in the Field of Financial Education, representing the Association of Serbian Banks, as one of the partners in the project, whose authorial team was responsible for the FinPis Handbook The Basics of Financial Literacy for Employees in Educational Institutions. She took this opportunity to thank the Minister of Education and his associates for the successful cooperation, as well as for the confidence they had shown: “It is a great honour and pleasure to have the Ministry recognise the importance of the topic of financial education in this project, in a manner that is systemic, through the implementation into school syllabus, as well as to have them accept direct cooperation with the financial sector. We are particularly glad that the model of education starting from the youngest target group was accepted, i.e. starting with pre-school children, along with the support for elementary and high school teachers. The practice in most European countries today, which the ASB has direct insight in through its membership in relevant international institutions, points to the fact that this approach is one of the factors of the success of financial education at the national level.”
The participation in this project was also discussed by the representatives of other partner institutions, Prof. Dr Goran Pitić, President of the Council of the FEFA Faculty, Ljiljana Novaković, President of the Responsible Living Association and Snežana Vujičić, teacher from the "Despot Stefan Lazarević" elementary school, who all agreed that such a project is an exceptional opportunity for institutions from different sectors to unite with a common goal, for the well-being of all citizens and the society as a whole.
