While high school students in some U.S. states are required to take a personal finance class in order to graduate, many 17-year-olds in China lack basic financial literacy.

In recent years, financial education for children has been put into focus in many Chinese cities, but those providing the training are mostly banks or other commercial institutions. Nanshan District is working to help children receive adequate financial literacy training in schools.

More than 120 math teachers in the district recently received online training to help them incorporate financial literacy contents into their future classes.

Li Qinghong, a pedagogue who compiled a financial education syllabus for students in Guangdong Province, gave a lecture to the teachers.

Teachers should try to combine financial contents into math teaching, using real-life examples and stories to kindle an interest in the children, Li said.

The aim is to cultivate in the young an ability to identify the difference between wants and needs, understand that every purchase has an opportunity cost, learn self-discipline, delay gratification, and understand how credit works.

“In teaching financial literacy, teachers need to focus on the ability to understand the concepts and use the acquired knowledge to solve real-life problems so that students can make better decisions in how to spend their money, manage their budgets and understand the risks of investment,” Li said.

Li also encouraged the teachers participating in the training to do more research on the topic, develop their own unique teaching methods, and get timely feedback from parents in order to improve their teaching.

(Li Dan)