Financial skills and education for school and college students are becoming essential as young people navigate digital payments, changing career paths, and long-term financial responsibilities. Despite money influencing everyday decisions, financial education is often delayed or treated as an optional subject. Introducing financial literacy early; at school and college levels; can help students understand how money works, manage risk, and make informed financial choices that support both personal and professional life.
In this conversation, Dr. Madhuri Dubey, Founder Director at National Skills Network (NSN), speaks with Dr. Uma Shashikant, Founder Director of Centre for Investment Education and Learning (CIEL), on why financial skills must be treated as essential life skills and introduced meaningfully in schools and colleges.
The discussion goes beyond saving and spending to explore how young people can understand money, markets, risk, decision-making, and long-term financial choices. From practical classroom examples to preparing students for real-world financial responsibilities, this conversation offers valuable insights for educators, parents, policymakers, and students navigating a rapidly changing world of work.
Below are a few excerpts from our conversation. You can watch the full video on our YouTube channel.
Q. Why should financial literacy be introduced in schools, and how early should it begin?
A. Managing money is a critical life skill, and financial literacy needs to be seen through two lenses. One is the life skill that develops over time; handling money, making choices, and learning from experience. The other is a conceptual understanding of how money actually works.
At the school level, the focus should be on building this conceptual foundation. Children need to understand the “magic of money”, how money moves, how financial systems function, and how their decisions fit into this cycle.
Alongside concepts, exposure through simple, hands-on activities and mock decision-making exercises can help translate theory into practice. Financial literacy is a gradual process, but schools are the right place to begin. There is no doubt that money and finance should be part of the school curriculum.
Q. How do we move from financial awareness programs to practical, hands-on financial skills for students?
A. Designing a financial literacy syllabus is always a challenge because, like reading and arithmetic, it must build fundamentals that last a lifetime. At its core, financial literacy should ground students in how money works in everyday life.
Key practical learnings that schools should focus on include:
- Money as a limited resource: In a world of digital payments and ATMs, many students grow up believing money is always available. Understanding limits is a foundational life skill.
- Decision-making and trade-offs: For most people, the essential money skill is choosing how to allocate limited resources; understanding that spending in one place means giving up something elsewhere.
- Understanding markets: Students need exposure to how markets function, how people interact, how rules evolve, and how prices and choices are shaped; an area often missing even in higher education.
- Core financial concepts: Assets, risk, return, and investment should be taught as concepts that drive behaviour, not just as definitions.
Hands-on exercises make these ideas real. Simple activities—such as planning a birthday within a fixed budget; teach allocation, prioritisation, and consequences far more effectively than theory alone.
Q. What financial skills should higher education focus on to address impulsive spending and income uncertainty?
A. Saving is essentially insurance against uncertainty. In today’s optimistic environment, where young people are confident about earning through diverse and flexible work options, spending reflects confidence rather than carelessness. This is not negative, but it does require better financial understanding.
Higher education must move beyond advice-based financial literacy and focus on core concepts: how tax systems work, the role of leverage and borrowing, capital structures, assets and liabilities, and how wealth grows over time. Students need a clear, practical view of financial decision-making, not just success stories.
When young people understand markets, balance sheets, and the movement of money through the economy, finance becomes less intimidating and more meaningful. It is this “magic of money” that education must make visible.
Q. Is understanding the bigger picture of money more important than just earning or saving it?
A. When financial education becomes too transaction-centric, it loses context. People don’t remember how interest rates or EMIs are calculated years later when they actually need to make a decision. It is only at the moment of action; choosing between a fixed or floating loan, or deciding loan tenure; that these concepts truly matter.
This is why many financial literacy courses fall short. They focus on what people should know, without explaining why it matters at that stage of life. Without real context, learning feels abstract and quickly fades. Financial education works best when it builds understanding of how money functions as a system, so learners can apply concepts when real-life situations arise.
Q. What should financial education focus on for young women and girl students?
A. Money is not a gender issue; everyone needs to understand and manage it. Women should not abdicate financial decision-making simply because of long-standing social norms.
Financial literacy becomes accessible when we focus on core concepts instead of getting lost in rules and processes. Once the basic structure of how money works is clear, participation naturally increases. There is nothing complicated or intimidating about it.
Earning, spending, saving, investing, and giving are lifelong financial responsibilities. Women should be involved in all of them, not just a few. My message to young women is simple: don’t hold yourself back from making financial decisions because of your gender; financial confidence is learned, and it belongs to everyone.
Also read: BFSI and FinTech Industry Skills and Employability
Q. What financial decisions should a young adult be able to make confidently?
A. Financial education should be treated as a life skill, not merely a tool for employment. Regardless of profession, every individual must manage money and make financial decisions throughout life.
By the age of 20 or 21, successful financial education should enable a young adult to:
- Understand core financial concepts such as time value of money, compounding, inflation, assets, risk and return, leverage, and how markets function
- Make informed everyday decisions around earning, spending, borrowing, and saving
- Use financial products responsibly, including credit cards, loans, and basic investment instruments
- Recognise the importance of long-term thinking, beyond short-term impulses or speculative behaviour
- Begin building assets and net worth, rather than living entirely paycheck to paycheck
Financial literacy helps young people expand their ability to think long-term, make deliberate choices, and build financial resilience early in life.
