CBSE Students may start learning financial literacy in schools

December 11, 2011, 12:00 am


CBSE Students may start learning financial literacy in schools, moral science is already starting from the next academic year.

The CBSE has agreed to include financial literacy programme as part of the curriculum," a finance ministry official told. The board has finalised the contours of the programme in association with the finance ministry and the financial regulators. The RBI, SEBI and CBDT had been separately working on financial literacy programmes targeted at different sets of individuals. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had stressed on the need for such education in schools at an RBI-OECD seminar on financial literacy when he said it was a prerequisite to financial inclusion. The minister had pointed out that the global economic meltdown happened partly because the ordinary citizens did not understand complex financial products, credit card debt or mortgages. "Financial markets now offer complex choices to consumers, but literacy is essential for consumers to make informed choices," Mukherjee had said.

The programme will aim at educating CBSE school children about such products without overly burdening their syllabi. It is designed in the form of modules that can include projects, quizzes, debates, essays and online tutorials to make it easier and interesting for the young students. It will highlight the pitfalls of financial investment, including financial products.


Educationists endorse the need for providing financial literacy content in school curriculum in an interesting way to make children financially responsible from a very early age. If this is part of elective learning then it will allow children to get a better understanding of expenditure, savings and globalization, said Ameeta Mulla Wattal, principal Springdales School, Delhi.

The lack of financial literacy has meant that most financial regulators are having to run campaigns to make investors aware of the intricacies of investments and protect them from frauds.