ECONOMIC EDUCATION CHALLENGES DURING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Economic crises affecting all of us over the past years have taught us to adopt a more prudent economic behavior and to act as quite rational consumers. Within this paper, staring from the current challenges we have to face due mostly to Coronavirus pandemic across the globe, we will analyze if the economic crisis triggered by this situation is just a thought lesson which draws our attention to a basic economic principle, the scarcity of resources, or, more than that. We will mostly look to identify if it is an awareness indicator about the key role of education in general and economic education in particular. We strongly believe we should pay more attention and to take more care in preparing the individuals, mostly generation Z to whom we interact within our classes (namely now the virtual ones) such as to better anticipate and tackle the downturns of the economic cycle. As happens in real life, the economic cycle counts with its upward and downward movements. During upward movements (called also as economic expansion) individuals tend to forget the basic principles of an well-balanced economic behavior such as not to spend beyond their possibilities, to save and not to incur in unnecessary expenses. Sometimes some of them take risky economic decisions without taking into account the fundamentals of basic economic education. Basic concepts of economic education enable the individuals to better understand the economic environment and to prepare them for taking the most convenient (at least for short-term perspective) economic decisions in order to diminish the expected negative effects of an economic crisis. That seems to become more difficult to anticipate & manage on its complex, turbulent and interconnected dimensions.

*The information and views set out in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of her employer (disclaimer to be used for one of the authors, Adina Teodora PAŞA)