Posted by: Published on – Mon 14 Nov 22 05:23 PM
Jiang Gang: Despite having a good academic background, many people have problems visiting a bank because they lack the knowledge to conduct transactions at the bank. To overcome this challenge, staff at Zilla Parishad High School (ZPHS) in Chilpur have launched an innovative program aimed at developing financial literacy in students not only through teaching but also by running a bank on the school premises. According to the staff, this is the only school bank opened in the state.
The bank deposit of the school established a month ago is Rs 31,000. “There are financial literacy classes in both the eighth and ninth grades. We want to take students to the bank to help them understand banking transactions. But we think opening a bank itself is a great help for students to actually learn. So we set it up in school on October 15th bank,” said D Venkateshwarlu, who teaches social sciences at the school.
School banks quickly exploded, and students began saving money from their pocket money. There are nearly 160 students, and the staff selected 4 girls as bank clerks. M Archana from Year 9 is the manager and P Sreeja from the same class is the accountant. NS Chandana of 8th class is the cashier and A Sahasra Laxmi of 7th class is the clerk. The bank operates three shifts a day, each for half an hour.
In addition to maintaining a ledger containing deposit details, withdrawal and deposit forms were printed in the name of the bank. A logo was also designed for this small bank that helps students save pocket money.
Principal V Leela said the aim was to educate students about the importance of saving pocket money and help them manage their finances in the future. “We hope this effort will stop students from wasting money. They save and withdraw money to buy pens, pencils, notebooks and other items the school needs. While schools had such facilities about 15 years ago, all but our state schools , there is no such facility in any public school,” she said.
Bank manager M Archana said student savers were also given ID cards that acted as passbooks. The ID card contains name, class, account number and photo. “I also deposited and banked 300 rupees. On average, a student makes a dozen bank transactions in a month,” she said. She said the students learned a lot about banking transactions. To keep deposits safe, school staff opened a savings account in the school’s name at the local post office. They deposited Rs 27,000 of the Rs 31,000 into a post office account to keep it safe. The remaining cash is used for daily transactions.
Macharla Praveen Kumar Goud, a parent whose two daughters are studying at the school, said setting up the bank was a brilliant move by the teachers at ZPHS in Zilpur. “It will definitely teach kids about banking transactions and help instill the habit of saving money in them,” he added.
