The Education Ministry is working towards expanding its cashless school concept and programme, said Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik.
The ministry will collaborate with Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) to come up with plans to transform schools into cashless eco-systems. The ministry and BSN has reached a consensus and will work together to carry out a pilot project in a few selected schools, though they will look more into the matter before setting any time frame.
However, he admitted that it would not happen overnight and would likely only be fully realised in a few generations into the future, according to The Star.
Spend Smartly with Financial Literacy
This cashless programme is part of its efforts to boost awareness of financial literacy among schoolchildren, along with BSN’s Skim Galakan Simpanan Pelajar (SGSP) programme, reported The New Straits Times.
The SGSP is a savings scheme in the format of a competition open to primary and secondary school students. The competition offers special prizes to students and schools every year.
For BSN, these programmes are part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives that aims to encourage students to participate and save up.
He also stated that 79%, or 8,073 out of 10,180, of the schools in Malaysia had started saving through the SGSP scheme which began in 1982, as well as other finance programmes by the bank.
Moving Towards a Cashless Society
Dr Maszlee also pointed out that some schools were already operating on a cashless system. For example, Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Lanjan, which is an orang asli school in Damansara Perdana, Selangor.
He said that moving towards a cashless school system would lead to fewer thefts among schoolchildren.
He also said he found it interesting how China had seamlessly transformed into a cashless society where most people would use e-wallets and mobile applications to conduct transactions. He added that even credit and debit cards are outdated as all they needed was a QR code, reported Bernama.
Dr Maszlee also expressed his wishes for the young generation to adopt a positive attitude on prioritising expenses and be prudent in their spending. This would allow them to be ready for rainy days and to be better prepared for their future.
For more information about parenting and family, please visit Motherhood.com.my.