Postepay prepaid cards for high school students – The Republic

From 28 April in all the Italian state and private schools have over the new cards of the students’ study-I Postepay “: a kind of” electronic purse “. At the beginning 630 000 cards will be distributed to students the first year and, since September, the new card will be distributed to all. The initiative is part of a larger project of the Ministry of Education on financial education and promoting the use of electronic money. In practice, in the pockets of students get a prepaid card, such as those that activate many parents for the costs of their children. Only this time the card is promoted by the Ministry of Education and, compared to those in the trade, has some extra protection: it is not associated with any bank account, not a credit card, and does not allow access to certain sectors considered in risk like game online.

However, it is a prepaid card in all respects: it lasts five years will be recharged up to 2,500 euro per year and students will be able to withdraw up to € 1000. It ‘a technological evolution, designed by former Education Minister Francesco Profumo, the old paper “I study”. If the first card was nothing more than a kind of declaration of the “status” of the student, which gave the possibility to access the classics discounts for younger people (from the museums to the means of transport), Perfume is committed to ensure that, through the paper, we allargassero the horizons of consumption of the students, closing new contracts with phone companies, airlines and electronics stores. Until you get the idea to allow children to charge it with real money.

What is new, however, is creating some discontent among some teachers. So much so that the association “School for the Republic” calls for their immediate withdrawal. “The novelty that makes it unacceptable – they write – is that, besides the usual benefits of a cultural nature, the program also allows you to get discounts Bancoposta, which allows you to have discounts directly in over 27,000 retailers throughout Italy as well as pay for all shops and places in the world that accept VISA cards and withdraw money from ATMs. ” In short, the ministry would be turning students into “consumers”. According to the association nothing more than “the culmination of a series of linguistic innovations introduced by the end of the 90s: portfolio, credits, debts …”.

From the ministry reiterated that it is an educational project, the result of an agreement between the Ministry of Education and Post Office closed in 2013. Sui student forum since its announcement, the paper has been a success, of course, the instrument is convenient, provides access to many discounts, and is less expensive of those in the trade. There are, for example, activation fees (activated only at the request of the boy, and if a minor of the family). Not everything is free, however, if a little ‘cheaper than the average: for every refill you pay 1 euro, as well as withdraw money at Bancoposta.

On the issue also involved the FLC CGIL: “It’ certainly a tool that expands the possibilities of the students, and perhaps should enlarge even more, for example by closing agreements for restaurants – says the Secretary Mimmo Pantaleo – the theme, however, is that the right to education: the prepaid card is fine, but there are too many families who do not have money to put in it. And I also downloaded to the great work on the school secretariats in crisis due to the headcount reduction. “