The Impact of Social and Financial Education on Savings Attitudes and Behavior Among Primary School Children in Uganda

Abstract

This study is one of the first that examines the effects of social and financial education training and a children’s club developed by Aflatoun on savings attitudes and behavior among primary school children in Uganda. A randomized phase in approach was used by randomizing the order in which schools implemented the program (school-level randomization). The treatment group consisted of students in schools where the program was implemented, while in the control group the program was not yet implemented. The programme lasted 3 months including 16 hours. We compared posttreatment variables for the treatment and control group. Study participants included 1,746 students, of which 936 students were from 22 schools that were randomly assigned to receive the program between May and July 2011; the remaining 810 students attended 22 schools that did not implement the program during the study period. The intervention increased awareness of money, money recording, and savings attitudes. It also provides some evidence—although less robust—that the intervention increased actual savings. A short financial literacy and social training can improve savings attitudes and behavior of children considerably. This is an output from the ‘Delivering Inclusive Financial Development and Growth’ project