Financial Life Skills Education Impact on Children

Evaluating the impact of providing children with formalised education in financial and life skills.

Project Introduction

There is a growing emphasis on life skills and holistic child development in the Indian education context, with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 underscoring the need to move away from rote-learning methods and equip young learners with essential life skills. Despite this policy shift, children’s socio-economic background continues to shape their non-cognitive skills, often constraining confidence and aspirations. While research shows that life skills training can help disadvantaged children overcome such barriers, evidence on effective practices for delivering life skills education within the practical constraints of school systems remains limited — a gap this study aims to address.

Partners

Researchers

Project Methodology

The programme, delivered through Aflatoun International’s curriculum for vulnerable children and youth, aims to socially and economically empower children by strengthening confidence, aspirations, and financial skills across three modules — Myself, My World; My Resources, My Plans; and My Community — covering self-awareness, goal setting, and community engagement. The study involves two treatment arms of differing intensity, comparing school-based life skills and financial education with and without facilitated community engagement, alongside a control group, across thousands of 6th-grade students in government and privately aided schools. Beyond core lessons, Aflatoun also develops supplementary materials on WASH, environment, and violence prevention, and invests in teacher training to ensure effective delivery.

Impact

Outcome indicators, guided by Aflatoun’s Theory of Change, will be finalized following curriculum co-design, with measurement tools developed alongside local experts — combining surveys such as the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and perspective-taking scales, Likert items, and games designed to capture financial behaviours while reducing social desirability bias. Secondary outcomes include academic performance in mathematics and English, while intermediate outcomes such as risk and time preferences will be assessed through choice experiments, alongside measures of programme satisfaction.

Documentation

This project is currently in progress, and will be updated with findings as results arise.

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