FSS and Toss Bank Bring Financial Education to Pediatric Hospital School Students

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), in cooperation with Toss Bank, has launched a financial education program for pediatric hospital school students who cannot attend regular schools due to long-term medical treatment.

The FSS announced on August 31 that it held the first session of its "Onsite FSS Children's Finance School" program for hospital schools at Raphael Children's School located in Seoul St. Mary's Hospital of The Catholic University of Korea on August 19. Hospital schools are educational facilities established to enable children who have difficulty attending regular classes due to severe or chronic illnesses and long-term treatment to continue their studies while receiving medical care in the hospital.

The program will be held a total of four times through September 30. Each session will host around 10 participants, and considering the children's stamina, each session is scheduled for approximately one hour and 30 minutes.

The curriculum covers practical financial knowledge necessary for everyday life, including the meaning of money, managing allowances, rational spending, and the importance of saving. Experiential learning activities such as price guessing, mock markets, and board games are included to accommodate the unique circumstances of participants who seldom experience economic activities in daily life. Essential topics also include the tactics and prevention of financial frauds targeting teenagers, such as messenger phishing, smishing, and culture gift certificate scams. Of the total five modules, four will be selected and operated according to the actual progress and needs of participants.

To date, the FSS has expanded financial education for children and adolescents through initiatives like "One Company, One School Financial Education" and the "FSS Children's Finance School." However, these programs have mainly been run through school-based education or by individual requests from guardians, leaving hospital school students who are in long-term treatment or isolation excluded from financial education opportunities.

The FSS and Toss Bank plan to refine their educational content and operations based on the outcome of this pilot program. They also plan to identify additional hospital schools interested in participating, beginning with four in-person sessions scheduled at Samsung Medical Center in September. The FSS said, "We will diversify educational content and expand the participation of financial institutions in the 'One Company, One School Financial Education' program to broaden educational opportunities for children from vulnerable groups, including pediatric hospital school students."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.