The National Bank of Georgia (NBG), in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, hosted the first training of public school teachers within the frames of the project SchoolBank. SchoolBank was jointly developed by the National Bank of Georgia and Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI), and aims at improving financial literacy levels among children and youth.

As part of SchoolBank, NBG and CYFI designed a 15-lesson educational module, which is tailored to the needs of the youth between the ages of 12-15, and which covers all essential financial topics for the youth: saving, smart spending, budgeting, consumer rights and responsibilities, decision-making, risks and opportunities. The program uses active learning methods and is structured in an engaging, interactive and entertaining manner.

At an initial stage, the SchoolBank project pilot will be implemented in 11 public schools of Tbilisi, Mtskheta and Rustavi. Starting from 2018, it is planned to expand the scope of the project to other regions of Georgia as well.

Starting from October 2017, the SchoolBank project will also be implemented at the National Youth and Children's Palace of Georgia (NYCP). Within the frames of the project, NBG trained the NYCP teachers in April 2017.

In addition to an educational component, the project SchoolBank also has a banking component, and entails the involvement of commercial banks. One commercial bank is currently involved in the project.

"It is essential to provide financial education to the youth from the early stages of their lives. Financial education will allow the youth to develop healthy financial behaviors, and support them throughout their lives. I would like to thank the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia for their support in implementing the SchoolBank project pilot at schools. Teachers have a crucial part to play in the successful implementation of the project, and this training aims at capacity building among teachers. We hope that SchoolBank will be successfully concluded in the pilot schools, and that we will be able to implement the project to other parts of the country as well" - stated Koba Gvenetadze, Governor of the National Bank of Georgia.