In today's world, financial transactions play an essential role, both in the business environment and in the everyday life of every human being. Almost all events that make up our daily lives are quantified monetarily. However, financial education was not and is not a priority in Romania, neither in the education system, nor in society in general. Considered the prerogative of professionals trained at specialized schools, this type of education is not a topic of interest. The consequences of this attitude can be easily seen: from the low development of the capital market to current decisions with financial impact, taken without mastering or understanding all the information. Almost twenty years after the denomination of the national currency, many people still use the old monetary references. The bank card market has grown significantly, but there are still individuals who do not own at least one bank card. We add to these findings the challenges of information technology, which lead to a digital revolution with ever wider and deeper consequences.
Like many other components of general education, financial education must also be the subject of children's training, starting from primary school, from classes where they have the ability to understand some essential notions, such as money, selling, buying, paying, card banking. By knowing and understanding them, schoolchildren prepare for the moment when they will understand the world they live in, an understanding that cannot be complete without financial education.
One of the first steps to be taken for the preparation and establishment of a national strategy regarding the financial education of young people, starting from primary school, is the establishment of curriculum coordinates for the financial education process, which contain school programs adapted to the level of preparation of the students. This form of education constitutes, today, a didactic challenge. We consider that this form of training must be carried out throughout the youth education program, both in the primary cycle and in the secondary and high school. We can say that financial education falls under the concept of lifelong learning.
With other published works in the field of primary education, Mrs. Lidia Sabău, teacher for primary education, is following through on this didactic challenge. Lidia Sabău continues her pioneering work with this volume, through which she proposes the school curriculum of the discipline "The joys of piggy banks". This discipline is addressed to the 3rd and 4th grades of the primary cycle. The content of this curriculum shows care and attention to all the details necessary to acquire the basic knowledge of financial education.
A first characteristic of this school program is the connection of the knowledge proposed to be learned with the eight key competences established in the European Union for lifelong learning, in particular with entrepreneurial, financial and legal competences.
Another characteristic refers to the use of digital resources, specific to the students' level of study, which lead to the acquisition of digital skills as a means of learning and acquiring knowledge.
Even if the proposed school curriculum envisages an optional subject, we believe that the acquisition of financial education knowledge is essential for the development and preparation for life of young people, and we hope that the decision-making bodies will determine the introduction of this subject as a mandatory subject in the future .
We congratulate Lidia Sabău for this necessary contribution and we are still waiting for other works.
Reviewer, Univ. Conf. Dr. Daniel Botez
Faculty of Economic Sciences
Department of Accounting, Audit and Economic-Financial Analysis "Vasile Alecsandri" University from Bacău