Portugal "is today a world reference for financial education," according to the president of the Coordinating Committee of the National Plan for Financial Education
Portugal has won the prestigious 2014 financial literacy prize for Europe issued by the Child and Youth Finance International.
The award recognises the work of governments in promoting the financial education of their young people. In Portugal this is coordinated by the Bank of Portugal, the Securities Commission and the Insurance Market Institute of Portugal.
The President of the National Plan, Lúcia Leitão, said during the award ceremony that "the effort of the country was highly praised, particularly in the last year, in strengthening financial education in schools."
"They mentioned our training courses for teachers, the publication of the Guiding Principles, the celebration of the Day of Financial Education on October 31st, and the incentive for schools to have their own project, Everybody Counts," explained Leitão who added that the plan was created in early 2012 and that "the results achieved in just over two years is a source of pride."
The director participated in a session in which UNICEF spoke about the work that has been done in Portugal and said it had already been contacted by representatives of other countries to learn from the Portuguese programme.
"There are many people interested in learning about our plan, analysing what we are doing and learning from our example," said Leitão, adding that "This award will allow us to advance our ideas with enthusiasm and confidence, because now we have confirmation that we are on the right track. We have a series of initiatives to prepare which we will announce soon and I believe we can make a difference."
Portugal beat off opposition from the Czech Republic and Turkey to come in first.
It is hoped that this new generation of financailly literate Portuguese will be less likely to make the same mistakes as their elders who currently are battling to bring the economy out of a prolonged recession.
