Nothing is more perilous than a young person who has no financial literacy. Someone who doesn’t know how to handle their money can quickly fall into a variety of financial traps without even realizing it. Making poor financial decisions is typically tough and might take years to correct. Early exposure to the subject of money will provide kids with crucial knowledge and skills that will help them make wise decisions regarding their finances.
One of the most effective strategies to close the gap between your wealth creation path and economic growth is through financial literacy. It mainly entails your comprehension of how accounts operate, how to utilize credit cards, and how to stay out of debt. Your decisions regarding savings and investments will lack a solid foundation if you lack financial literacy. Financial literacy will also offer comprehensive knowledge of financial education and tactics that are essential for financial success and prosperity.
But why is teaching children about finances and starting financial literacy at an early age so important?
The Importance Of Teaching Children Financial Literacy
GP Garg, the executive director of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), at an NSE event, said that even though India has close to 80% literacy, only 27% of Indians are financially literate. This boils down to less than 3% in the case of kids. While children are encouraged at home to save through “Piggy Banks” at an early age, they are not taught other more important aspects of achieving financial independence like budgeting, investing, and the power of compounding.
India is a developing economy, and we are growing rapidly in terms of technology as well. The use of UPIs, credit cards, internet banking, and online transactions have increased a lot. But with these, so has financial frauds and debts. The lack of financial literacy is the reason why people are unable to avoid such things. Even when there are so many campaigns running about awareness, it’s still a huge issue.
Financial literacy, just like science and maths, takes years to learn and master. It needs to be gradually moved from easier things like the concept of money, saving, and budgeting to understating various investment methods and markets. This is why it should start at an early stage in life so that adults can be well prepared to manage their finances before they even start earning. A strong foundation of financial literacy from childhood can help support various essential life goals, such as saving for education or retirement, running a business, and managing debt responsibly.
Using Edtech To Teach Financial Literacy To The Children?
Edtech is the tech used for bringing IT tools into the classroom to make learning more engaging, inclusive, and personalized. Certain hardware and softwares are designed to enhance the learning experience in the classroom as well as make it easier for the teachers to provide a better learning experience to the students. Edtech not only makes learning easier for the students but also reduces the burden on the teaching faculty.
There are multiple types of Edtech tools like learning management tools (Google Classroom, TalentLMS, ProProfs), student information systems (Wisenet and Workday), classroom management software (ClassDojo, Socrative), assessment software (Kahoot!, GoReact), and an AI question generator like PrepAI. Each one of these tools is extremely helpful and makes both learning and teaching easier.
Three main issues that arise while teaching children financial literacy are not having a clear starting point, limited time, and a somewhat “tedious” syllabus. While financial literacy is essential, children do not exactly know how essential it is. For them, it is just another boring subject along with maths and science. This hurdle is hard to tackle for the teachers. Also, financial literacy is a vast subject that will take years for children to grasp and this also makes it hard to pin a starting point. From where do we exactly start teaching children these complex concepts.
Teaching financial literacy with education technology will help education institutions easily cross the above hurdles. EdTech can not only make financial literacy interesting for children, but it can also make it simple and
The Benefits Of Teaching Financial Literacy With Education Technology
Edtech Makes Learning Financial Skills Fun
Children can learn financial literacy skills in an entertaining and highly personalized manner using Edtech, allowing them to learn at their own pace. Teaching financial literacy with education technology fills in knowledge gaps that their parents aren’t addressing at home. Edtech also turns complicated financial lessons into games or interactive videos, which makes the learning experience fun. It takes the boredom out of financial studies.
Simplifies Complicated Financial Topics
Finance is a complicated subject that both children and adults find intimidating, but educational technology can help to simplify and split the subject down into manageable bits. Children can feel more in control of their own learning process now that they have access to financial technology and digital tools at school and at home.
Edtech Can Gamify Finance
Edtech can also be used to gamify finance, which can improve your students’ learning engagement and receptivity. LMS (learning management systems) features games for the entire class to play together as well as a customizable leaderboard where students may earn points and badges.This competitive, as well as a fun technique can make understanding financial concepts easier.
Makes It Easier For The Teachers To Track Progress
Digital tools also make it easier for teachers to track progress and mark weaker areas easily. This way, they can provide more personalized learning support to the students and make sure that all concepts are clear.
Conclusion
While we are moving to a more developed economy, we need to ensure that the future generation is equipped with the right knowledge and skills to handle their finances well and not just keep earning more and more.
Ultimately, teaching financial literacy with education technology will make teaching and learning finance more entertaining and easier.
