Sobral de Monte Agraço School, in Lisbon, wins national financial literacy competition

Matilde Soares and Leandro Fernandes, from the Joaquim Inácio Cruz Sobral Group of Schools, in Sobral de Monte Agraço, Lisbon district, were the top winners of the European Money Quiz 2022 national edition.

The two 1st year students of the Learning and Training Course will now represent Portugal in the European final, which will take place on 10 May, and they hope to win. "We were very nervous before the competition started and especially when we saw that we were on the podium and could actually be the winners and represent our country," say the 15-year-olds, still surprised but very happy to have won the first place in the competition. "We really enjoyed this experience, it was something we had never been through before." 

“It is extremely important that financial literacy be promoted as a school content, because through case studies, games or other active methodologies it is possible to equip students with tools for the future management of their adult lives. This is the only way to create a responsible generation in areas such as consumption, saving or investment”, notes Ana Filipa Joaquim, the teacher responsible for the students' participation in this competition, who recognises that this is the result of hard work.

The Daniel Sampaio Secondary School, in Almada, came in 2nd place, followed by the EB 2,3 Nogueira School, in Braga, which stood in third place in the podium.

40 schools and around 100 students from all over the country competed in the National Final of the quiz. They had to answer 20 questions on personal finance management, means of payment, maths, risk and digital security. The event took place on 25 March and was broadcast live on the APB YouTube channel.

For Rita Machado, who heads the APB's Financial Education Project, taking part in the European Money Quiz is a fun way to foster students' financial knowledge, contributing to increase financial literacy levels in Portugal - "We believe that this type of learning should start as early as possible and it can be very useful for more informed and responsible financial decisions in the future”.

Matilde and Leandro will now compete in the European top final against the winners of 25 countries and try to bring to Portugal one of the prizes: a trip to Brussels for the 5 first award-winners and a cash prize for the 3 best schools.

The EMQ National Final was held within the scope of the European and Global Money Week, which this year was celebrated between the 21st and the 25th of March. In the ten years since its creation, the Global Money Week has already involved around 170 countries, 16,000 entities and 50 million children and young people across Europe.