Yesterday (April 14), the Banco de Moçambique launched the third edition of the school contest in light of the economic education project “Economics for All.”, in 22 select secondary schools across the country.  The target audience of the initiative is 9^th and 12^th grade students. The main objective of the contest is to equip these students with basic concepts about inflation and the role of the central bank in the national economy.

For 9^th grade students, the contest theme is “Keeping Inflation Low – Why It Matters to You and Your Family,” while for 12^th grade students the theme is “Why the Banco de Moçambique Matters to You and Your Family.”

The contest comprises three phases:

• a true/false questionnaire, from which the 30 top-scoring students will be selected to proceed to the second phase and visit the Banco de Moçambique’s headquarters and branches on June 12;
• a contest involving the writing of essays, poetry, and video production based on the proposed themes; and
• the selection of winners and distribution of the respective prizes.

Also participating in the contest, as jury members, are teachers appointed by each school. This provides them with an opportunity to enhance their knowledge of the central bank and inflation – knowledge that will be useful in the teaching and learning process.

The launch event in each province was led by the Directors of the regional branches, or their representatives, at the schools where the contest will take place. In general, these officials spoke about the objectives and methodology of the contest and distributed brochures to support students in understanding the key concepts covered.