The Ministry of Education will introduce a lesson on financial education in the third grade of high school as of the next school year, in a bit to strengthen culture over financial literacy President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulides said on Friday.

Addressing an international conference on financial literary hosted by the Central Bank of Cyprus, the President stated that Cyprus’ “very low” performance in basic elements of the financial literacy has “multiple negative consequences.”

Saying that the promotion of financial literacy is among the priorities of the government, Christodoulides announced that the Ministry of Education is planning to introduce a programme of financial education for the third grade of gymnasiums throughout Cyprus for the next school year.

“This is a first significant step,” he said, noting that the development of financial literary skills will also be introduced in primary schools.

“If we want to combat the problem we should build culture starting from our schools,” the President said.

On his part, Constantinos Herodotou, Governor of the CBC referred to a study carried by the CBC, as part of a study carried out by the OECD, showing that Cyprus’ performance in financial literacy stood at 56% compared with 60% of the OECD participating states, whereas Cyprus’ performance in digital financial literacy was even lower, at 44% compared to 53% of the other participating countries.

He also said that the OECD believes that the minimum performance considered a satisfactory level of financial literacy is 70%.

“The certain percentages are not just statistical data, they depict a worrying reality which demands immediate care and actions by all of us,” he said, adding that digital financial literacy is even more important in an era when the digital revolution and technological innovation redefine the way with which we manage our economics and the way we transact.