Glenvista High Schools in Gauteng walked out victorious at the SA Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee Schools Challenge, scooping up the R30 000 overall prize.
On Tuesday, the SA Reserve Bank (Sarb), in partnership with the Department of Basic Education (DBE), announced the 2021 finalists and winners of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Schools Challenge.
While Glenvista took the winning prize, it was followed in second place by Hoërskool Linden and King’s School White River from Mpumalanga came third.
Apart from the R30 000 school prize, each participating learner from the winning school walked away with R15 000 as well as an iPad for each learner and the educator.
The second-place winner, Hoërskool Linden, received R20 000 for the school as well as R10 000 for each participating learner.
King’s School White River received R15 000 for the school as well as R8 000 for each participating learner.
This year’s other finalists were Gauteng’s El-Shaddai Christian School, in fourth place; the Western Cape’s Paarl Girls High School, in fifth place; Gauteng’s Horizon High School, in sixth place; and Mariathal Combined School from KwaZulu-Natal, in seventh place.
The MPC Schools Challenge, piloted in 2012, is one of the channels the SARB uses to engage learners on how the MPC sets the repurchase (repo) rate.
When it started it only had 70 schools participating but has since grown to have 400 schools in the competition.
The programme offers learners an opportunity to grow their understanding of monetary policy and helps them relate and understand how the economy works.
Learners are encouraged to put their classroom economics theories into practice.
The competition is aimed at increasing the level of interest in economics as a subject of choice among high school learners while encouraging learners to pursue a career in economics.
How the competition works:
The SARB provides the learners with the resources and economics data they need to compile an essay, in the format of the SARB’s MPC statement, with their interest rate decision.
The teams then submit their MPC statement to the SARB for economists to mark, with representatives from the DBE moderating the outcomes.
The finalists then make oral presentations to the SARB MPC members, where the winners are selected.