PRESS RELEASE
Bank of Albania launches new educational package “1, 2, 3… Çufo piggy learns to save”

The Bank of Albania has launched the educational package “1, 2, 3… Çufo piggy learns to save” for the 2013-14 school year.

This package is dedicated to pupils attending class I, II and III of the nine-year school. It will be taught in the free teaching classes dedicated to school projects or as an inter-subject project.

The text of the educational package “1, 2, 3… Çufo piggy learns to save” was designed and developed in accordance with the best didactic practices for children aged 7 to 9 years.

The topics elaborated in this book were selected to comply with the daily experience of pupils with money and personal finance.

The materials included in this package were prepared by the Bank of Albania, in cooperation with Gaqo Bushaka, a distinguished children's book writer, who made the characters of his work “Çufo and Curly puppy” available to the bank.

This educational package consists of the fairy tale book “1, 2, 3... Çufo piggy learns to save”, the worksheets and the teacher's guide.

• The book “1, 2, 3... Çufo piggy learns to save” consists of seven short fairy tales, which through a simple language cover topics such as: the difference between needs and wants; where the money comes from and what it serves for; and money management and saving.
• 22 completing worksheets, which help the pupils learn by having fun.
• The Teacher's Guide aims to help teachers better understand the package objectives and guide them during the elaboration of fairy tales and worksheets in class.  

This educational package seeks to teach financial education to pupils of class I, II and III, and motivate them to save and take care of money, and push them into active thinking about money and prices.

The Ministry of Education and Science has decided to develop this project in 30 pilot nine-year schools, initially in Tirana, Vlora and Shkodra.

This educational package will be provided to all schools free of charge.

To ensure the successful implementation of this project, the Bank of Albania has held training seminars for teachers of the 30 pilot schools. These seminars seek to introduce teachers to the essential concepts of the package and the best ways to convey the information to the children.

The package launched today represents the first level of the financial education platform designed by the Bank of Albania. After successfully incorporating the elective module “Personal finance in your hands” into the high school curriculum in 2011 and launching the educational package “1, 2, 3… Çufo piggy learns to save”, the Bank of Albania is committed to design other educational programmes in the years ahead, dedicated to students at all education levels. In this regard, conveying educational information by age group through specialised applications for iOS and Android operating systems is one of the greatest ambitions. The widespread use of mobile devices operating through these systems creates a golden opportunity to easily reach most people.