The four walls of a classroom enclose a hallowed, sacred ground. It is in the confines of these four walls that boys and girls acquire most of the skills that they will utilise to earn a living. It is in this space that poverty is , to a large extent, given a death blow. School is very important. But it has a tragic flaw.

 

Mark Zuckerberg- Facebook

It is my opinion that school as we know it today has failed to move with the times. Our schools are still operating in the industrial age, but the whole world has moved on to the new age; the information age. In the industrial age, the formula was simple: Study hard, get a good job, work hard as an employee, and everything will go smoothly for you. That worked then. Not now In this day and age, you will find school drop-outs are the ones making billions of shillings as people with doctorates and several academic accolades struggle with their bills. This is disturbing.

At first glance one would think that the person who works very hard in school should naturally be the one to enjoy the fruits of life more than those who don't put in as much effort. But the sad news is that schools do not focus on the one skill that is needed more than anything else to make it in the real world : financial literacy.

Financial literacy is simply the knowledge of how money works and how you can make your money work for you, instead of you working for money. It is my strong belief that the ultra rich school drop-outs that we know so well (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell) didn't actually drop out. They just enrolled in a different school. The school of financial literacy.

A person without this special skill will find it very difficult to survive in this global village. The good news is that you do not have to sit idly and wait for the stakeholders in education to realize this and formulate policies that will bring financial literacy in class. With the click of a button (or the swipe of a screen) you can access tons of information on how to improve your financial literacy.

 

Bill Gates-Microsoft

Steve Jobs- Apple

You can start taking control of your balance sheet, of your cash flow statement. And that, my friends, will make all the difference.

This article was written by: Victor Karani