Sebi pitches for subject on capital markets in school syllabus

Market regulator Sebi has made a pitch for inclusion of additional financial concepts related to capital markets in school syllabus.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India said it has followed up with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and HRD Ministry on the proposal and has been informed that it would be given due consideration.
"Follow ups with CBSE and Ministry of HRD have been done and as informed by the Ministry, the inclusion of additional financial concepts and a different approach of introducing such concepts shall be duly considered when the process of revising the syllabus and textbooks will be done in 2014-15," Sebi said.

As part of its efforts to spread financial awareness, Sebi has been inviting students from schools, colleges and professional institutes interested in learning about the market regulator and its role since February 2011.
It has conducted 139 such visits so far. The participants belonged to different parts of the country such as Amritsar, Pondicherry, Goa, Bareilly and were pursuing different courses, including management, commerce, banking, law, arts and science.
"It is proposed to increase the number of such visits with new areas of catchment in terms of institutions even at the regional and local offices," Sebi said.

For spreading financial literacy among more students, Sebi said the process of initiating 'National Financial Literacy Assessment Test (NFLAT) has been started and will be completed by August.

The test is part of Sebi's 'National Strategy for Financial Education' drafting, which was initiated in 2011-12 and has now been finalised.
"Additional resources will be deployed to make more efforts for organising such events (like the test) in future and involve larger section of society," Sebi said.