Evaluating the Efficacy of School Based Financial Education Programs
Surveys on financial knowledge and behavior have revealed that individuals in both developed and developing countries around the world lack adequate knowledge to make informed financial decisions. Empirical evidence demonstrating correlations between financial literacy and various measures of well-being has directed service providers, donors, and policymakers to include financial training and business education programs as part of broader anti-poverty strategies. Financial education, especially when provided in early life stages, has the potential to create long lasting impacts. Intuitively, provision of education in financial skills offers useful tools to persons of all ages facing distinct economic challenges, yet evidence of impact is thin and mixed. This project seeks to identify an effective program curriculum and delivery for financial education for primary schools students. Specifically, it will measure the impact of financial education on students’ behaviors and attitudes and will allow future research to determine if this early education has a bearing on future financial decision making.
Savings and finances are parts of the daily life of youth, yet traditional school curriculums often overlook the specific issues and challenges students encounter with money. This curriculum gap presents a missed opportunity for students and teachers. Aflatoun, a Dutch non-governmental organization providing social and financial education to 540,000 children in 33 countries, operates a voluntary after school club in Ghana for primary and junior high schools. Aflatoun uses a uniquely designed “social and financial education curriculum” to improve children’s savings habits as well as financial attitudes and self-esteem. Trainings on the specific aspects of handling money, saving on a regular basis, and spending responsibly aim to teach children, at a young age, lessons and behaviors that they will carry with them throughout their entire lives.
Aflatoun operates by collaborating with local partners to implement the program. Two project partners - the Women and Development Project (WADEP) and the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) - trained instructors and managed program implementation. SNV Ghana worked with three other implementing partners in two regions in Ghana - Western: Berea Social Foundation (BSF) and Support for Community Mobilization Projects and Programs (SCMPP); Greater Accra: Ask Mama Development Organization (AMDO) - to train teachers and monitor the implementation of clubs.
Details of the Intervention:
The study included 5,000 primary school students aged 9 - 14 in 135 public schools in semi-urban and rural Ghana - 30 in Greater Accra, 60 in Volta, and 45 in Western District. One-third of the schools in each region was randomly assigned to one of three different groups: the Aflatoun program, Honest Money Box intervention, or a comparison group without treatment.
The Aflatoun curriculum includes lessons about planning, budgeting, saving, proper spending, as well as self-esteem building exercises and uses songs, games and worksheets which put children at the center of the learning process. Aflatoun also adapts its messages and activities to the context of the countries in which it operates, focusing on cultural heritage and community in order to foster a collective sense of empowerment among participant children. The Honest Money Box intervention, in contrast, is solely focused on financial education and is designed to provide a comparison for Aflatoun’s unique social and attitudinal curriculum. IPA developed the Honest Money Box intervention as a group savings scheme with a financial literacy curriculum. Some of the topics covered in the curriculum include: What is Money?, Saving and Spending, Planning and Budgeting, and Entrepreneurship, and lessons in how to use the Money Box, a lockbox that stores group savings
To implement the two programs, around 200 teachers, two teachers in each selected school, were trained by local organizations. Teachers instructed two multi-grade clubs, with an average of 54 students, and delivered the assigned curriculum, as well as, provided a secure storage space for the money saved, often kept in the teacher’s locked office. Clubs met on average once a week after school at a time decided by the members. Students saved money from their pocket change and recorded transactions on individual passbooks. IPA and the partner organizations monitored the teachers to ensure that the desired standards and child-centered approaches and procedures were being implemented.
The evaluation was conducted over the course of one school year. Between 20 and 40 children per school were chosen to be surveyed. As children participants constitute a potentially vulnerable population, both treatments and surveys were conducted in the students’ school environment, a familiar space, with the oversight of school officials and IPA staff. The baseline survey conducted in September 2010 and the endline in August 2011. The surveys collected data on financial well-being of students and their families, cognitive function, and perspectives on savings and time-preference. The endline survey captured the same information in addition to a financial education endline assessment and a psychosocial module to understand students’ outlooks and levels of self-control.
Results and Policy Lessons:
Results forthcoming.
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