Alytus Jotvingia high school students will go to the final of the European money quiz in Brussels: they achieved the best results

The European money quiz, which gives schoolchildren the opportunity to test their knowledge in the field of financial literacy, attracted the interest of more than 2,500 students from 102 schools in Lithuania this year – as many of them participated in the national round of the quiz. The team of two students from Alytus Jotvingiai Gymnasium – Martyna Morazaitė and Gabrielė Gurskaitė – together with their teacher Virginija Klusevičiene, who achieved the best results, will travel to the international finals of the quiz in Brussels, which will take place on April 18-19.

The national round of the European money quiz in Lithuania took place remotely. The participants of the quiz were presented with 15 questions, to which the schoolgirls of Alytus Jotvingiai Gymnasium who answered correctly and quickly won the title of winners.

“We are happy that the group of students participating in the quiz is growing every year and we would like to encourage even more of them to participate in the future. The questions were not particularly complicated or required special calculations – in order to answer them, the students’ curiosity and desire to be interested in various topics was most useful. Many questions were related to current issues, which are undoubtedly felt by teenagers as well – inflation, savings, personal finance management, investment basics. Attention is also paid to fraud prevention, which is relevant at the moment – we encouraged students to learn to recognize financial fraudsters. It is not so important whether the quiz participants managed to answer all the questions correctly or a few – the goal of this initiative is to interest teenagers in the basics of financial literacy even before they start independent life”, said the president of the Lithuanian Banks Association (LBA), dr. Eivile Čipkutė.

The second place in the quiz was won by Saulė Kudarauskaitė and Juna Česnulevičiūtė from Vilnius Simon Stanevičius Pro-gymnasium, the third place by the team of Matas Kopūstas and Ben Žilinskas from Vilnius Jesuit Gymnasium. These teams are awarded with cash prizes established by the LBA.

“In preparation for the quiz, we reviewed last year’s tests and explored the financial literacy topics in more detail. The young people of this age, who take part in the quiz, are not yet taught the basics of economics in high school, so they themselves put a lot of effort into finding knowledge about financial topics. In the end, it was their ability to focus, answer questions quickly and correctly, and avoid mistakes – in fact, the class was so enthusiastic about the quiz that the atmosphere resembled a basketball game. The children were very happy with their team’s victory,” says V. Klusevičienė, a math teacher at the Alytus Jotvingiai Gymnasium.

She adds that the European money quiz in general greatly motivates schoolchildren to delve into personal finance and economic topics: “They get emotionally involved in such events, and emotions combined with knowledge produce excellent results.” The Alytis schoolgirls will continue to study the topics of financial literacy in preparation for the final of the quiz. which will take place in Brussels.

In the final of the European money quiz, Lithuanian representatives Martyna and Gabrielė will compete with participants from other countries and will be able to win prizes established by the European Banking Federation (EBF). The trip of the students and their accompanying teachers to the final of the quiz will be financed by LBA.

LBA, which coordinates the quiz in Lithuania, cooperates with the economic education and entrepreneurship education organization “Lietuvos Junior Achievement” in organizing this event.

Last year, students from 28 European countries took part in the European Money Quiz. The victory was won by a team from Greece, and Lithuania was represented in the competition by students from Šiauliai Gegužiai pro-gymnasium.

This week is Money Week in Europe and around the world, which aims to highlight the importance of financial education and encourage a deeper understanding of personal finance and money in general. For the European Banking Federation, this is already the anniversary, the 10th European Money Week, which also includes the European Money Quiz.

The European Banking Federation has been organizing the quiz since 2017. Last year, 37,504 teenagers from various EU countries took part in it. Ireland, Albania, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia sent representatives to the quiz final in Brussels last year. , Finland, North Macedonia, Sweden, Ukraine, Hungary and Germany.