Abstract
Financial literacy or competency refers to the ability to understand and apply financial knowledge, skills, and attitudes to make informed decisions and promote personal financial well-being. Despite growing global interest in financial education, empirical studies focusing on upper primary students remain limited. Moreover, recent studies have shown that Hong Kong youths’ financial literacy levels are unsatisfactory and financial education in local schools remains fragmented and insufficiently integrated into the formal curriculum. To address these gaps, the present study aims to develop upper primary students’ financial capabilities by providing three types of financial education curriculum models for Hong Kong upper primary students.
A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted with Hong Kong students in Primary 4 to 6. Participants in the intervention groups received structured financial education programs delivered in comprehensive or condensed version over one or three year(s). Schools were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (a) T1 – a three-year comprehensive version curriculum; (b) T2 – a one-year condensed version of the curriculum T1; (c) T3 – a one-year condensed curriculum developed based on developed by the organization other than that of T1 and T2; and (d) Control group – no treatment or intervention. In addition to evaluating the impact of different designed curriculum models, the study also plans to examine the heterogeneity of treatment effects across different socioeconomic backgrounds.
This study is expected to contribute to the existing literature on financial literacy education, particularly for the underexplored upper primary age group. The findings are also expected to offer practical insights for future policy development and curriculum implementation in Hong Kong.