Why India’s Classrooms Must Teach Money

When Jio’s IPO drew a record one crore applications, the market celebrated a milestone. Millions of ordinary households, many of them first-time investors, are now willing to put their savings into the stock market. Yet in many classrooms, when a teacher mentions the news, students nod politely without understanding what an IPO is, why a share has a price or what one crore applications means. That gap between a nation that is investing and a generation that does not understand investing is the real story here.

Ineffective Education

Financial education in India remains an afterthought. Our schools spend years on algebra, trigonometry and chemical equations, but a student can complete twelve years of schooling without learning how compound interest works, how a loan is priced or why inflation quietly erodes savings. Commerce and economics are electives, usually chosen by only a section of students, and even there, the treatment is often theoretical, built around definitions to memorise rather than decisions to make.

Surveys by India’s financial regulators and independent agencies have repeatedly found that only about one in four adults is financially literate. Official bodies such as the Reserve Bank of India, SEBI and the National Centre for Financial Education have launched awareness drives and a national strategy, and these deserve credit. But awareness campaigns reach people after they have already started making money decisions, often badly.

The IPO boom shows that finance is no longer a closed club of brokers in Mumbai. The sector now offers careers in wealth management, financial planning, equity research, risk analysis, insurance, banking, fintech, regulation and data-driven investing. Many of these roles need not be confined to metros or elite institutions but require trained, trustworthy people in every district, including smaller cities, where demand for honest financial guidance far exceeds supply.

A student who learns early how markets work may become an analyst, a certified planner, an entrepreneur or a policymaker. Even a student who chooses a completely different path will benefit in daily life. A young person who understands budgeting, saving, insurance and credit is less likely to fall into a debt trap, a loan-app scam or a ‘guaranteed returns’ scheme sold on social media.

At the national level, the case is stronger still. A financially aware population channels savings into productive investment instead of idle cash or unproductive gold, strengthens capital markets and becomes more resilient during economic shocks. A country aspiring to become a major economy cannot afford to have most of its citizens sitting out the system that drives that growth.

Ground Reality

The difficulty is that good intentions meet a crowded curriculum, overworked teachers and an examination-centred culture. Most teachers have never been trained to explain money matters, and textbooks that cover them can feel dry and disconnected from real life. Rural and small-town students face a further barrier, since access to practical exposure, such as a demat account, a mutual fund SIP or even a bank visit, is limited.

There is also a risk running in the opposite direction. A wave of influencers now promotes trading as a shortcut to wealth, and young people, excited by stories of quick gains, rush into risky products without grasping them. The very surge that makes the Jio IPO so impressive could, without guidance, produce a generation burned by speculation and put off investing for life.

India needs to move from occasional awareness camps to structured financial education that runs through schooling. Basic concepts such as saving, interest, budgeting and risk should be woven into mathematics and social science from the middle-school years, with a dedicated, practical subject in senior secondary classes. Colleges, whatever the stream, should offer a compulsory introductory course in personal finance so that engineers, artists and doctors alike leave with a working understanding of money.

Regulators, banks and market institutions can partner with schools to provide trusted material in regional languages. Above all, the focus should be on judgement, not jargon: teaching young people to ask where returns come from, what the risks are and who benefits from the advice.

One crore applications for a single IPO should inspire pride, but also responsibility. If we want such participation to be informed rather than impulsive, and our young people to see finance as a rewarding career rather than a mystery, we must begin where every lasting change begins: in the classroom.

(The writer is a former college Principal and Founder of Supporting Shoulders, an Odisha-based non-profit Trust. Views personal.)