Financial literary lessons help rural children open a new chapter in life

To provide children in rural areas with better financial literacy courses, products and services, Shanghai Better Education Development Center, a nonprofit organization that provides financial literacy education for rural children and youth, launched academic activities for students, teachers and principals to popularize financial literacy education across the country. It hopes more children would benefit from financial literacy education all through their lives.

Supported by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, BeBetter launched four projects to serve the rural schools nationwide from 2017 to 2021, namely the "Livelihood Enlightenment Project for Left-behind Children in Yunnan," "Wonder School-Afutong Financial Literary", "Afutong Financial Literacy Support Program for Rural Schools", and the "Wonder School Phase II-Afutong Teacher Development Plan."

The projects have served 16,526 rural children around China through curriculums and activities such as Qile Chicken Board Game, Afutong Financial Literary Dual-teacher Curriculum and 21-Day Savings Challenge as of June 2021.

Rural children learned to establish risk awareness, solve problems on their own, and understand the importance of insurance through the courses and activities. The children also learned about money planning, self-discipline, and saving through games.

The projects also try to improve teachers' teaching ability through training. 511 rural teachers have participated in the teacher development training through online and offline programs.

Financial literacy education is not just a simple subject, but also a social life skills course, which enables children in rural areas to have a certain understanding of money and help build their self-control, according to BeBetter.

Financial literacy education is also a tool for rural children to better adapt to the society in the future, and to cultivate independent, temperate and responsible economic citizens,and assist young people live a better life, it added.