MPC Schools Challenge kick off

This national competition, a South Africa Reserve Bank (SARB) initiative endorsed by the Department of Basic Education, aims to stimulate interest in economics among high school learners, put theory into practice and to learn how the SARB makes interest rate decisions.

Each school enters four pupils, who then have to write a monetary policy statement. Schools from across the country have been competing in this event since 2018, although the first pilot programme was tested in Gauteng in 2013.

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Thereafter, each province was gradually added to the competition. Mpumalanga started participating in the event from 2016, working alongside Irene Mabena, the Department of Basic Education provincial coordinator. This year, around 120 learners from across the province took part in the event.

The challenge consists of a workshop, where the pupils are taught how to structure the statement, and given data to use in a simulation.
Makgabo Lamola, SARB CSI manager, told Lowvelder that this challenge is “one of the key initiatives of the bank stakeholder education strategy”.

Although any school from Mpumalanga has yet to win the challenge, Lamola mentioned that each year provincial schools have progressed to the second (and final) round.

The winning team members get R12 000 each, and also has the option to choose between a laptop or an iPad. Their school wins R25 000 cash and the economics teacher will also be able to choose between a laptop or an iPad.

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