Dr Olga Cam and Dr Mohammad Rajjaque from CRAFiC have held a collaborative three-day workshop for secondary school pupils in India to help improve financial literacy.
The project explored dimensions of financial literacy in the Indian context and how effective learning materials for Indian secondary schools can be designed. Dr Cam and Dr Rajjaque worked with students and teachers to exchange ideas and co-create foundations for new teaching resources.
Held at St Joseph’s High School, Patna, the event was supported by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield University Management School, and inspired by ideas from the G53 Financial Literacy and Personal Finance Research Network.
“In today’s environment of online banking, rapidly expanding digital finance, trading platforms, and the increasingly aggressive promotion of financial products such as ‘Buy Now, Pay Later,’ the ability to understand how money works has never been more vital,” said Dr Cam.
“Added to this, financial literacy levels remain troublingly low worldwide. The most recent assessment by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showed on average, 18 per cent of students demonstrated a lack of basic financial literacy proficiency.
“We hope projects like this will help us to develop resources to guide financial literacy education not only at St Joseph’s, but also across the wider Patna school cluster.
“Our sincere thanks go to Dr Ajay Agnel Gilbert (Executive Headteacher) and Shweta Gilbert (Secondary Headteacher) for their warm invitation and facilitation, and to all the students and teachers at St Joseph’s who engaged so openly with the process.”
CRAFIC, Centre for Research into Accounting and Finance in Context, welcomes PhD students who wish to conduct research in this area.