Program Results: Bulgarian Students' Financial Knowledge Jumps

Bulgarian secondary school students participating in the Junior Achievement “Practical Finances” programme saw a dramatic improvement in financial literacy over a single academic year, according to an analysis released by the organisation. The share of students scoring a perfect 6 on a 6-point scale jumped from 13.6% at the start of the year to 52.9% by the end, based on tests completed by 147 students at entry and 140 at exit.

The average number of correct answers on a 20-question test rose from 10.54 (equivalent to a grade of 3.05) to 15.45 (4.56). The largest absolute gains were recorded in questions requiring precise knowledge rather than intuition, with success rates climbing by 39.9 percentage points for questions about the guaranteed amount of bank deposits, 35.2 points for credit interest rates, 33.2 points for inflation, 33.1 points for social and health insurance, and 32.9 points for credit approval conditions.

A sub-group of 137 students who took both the entry and exit tests showed the same pattern, ruling out that the improvement was merely a composition effect. Meanwhile, all 19 teachers surveyed by Junior Achievement Bulgaria said financial literacy should be part of the compulsory curriculum, with 79% pointing to upper-secondary school as the most appropriate stage. The programme, run by the non-profit, focuses on practical skills such as money management, risk assessment, and critical thinking about financial decisions.

Why Concrete Knowledge Beat Intuition

The Concrete Knowledge Gap

The programme’s greatest impact was on topics that cannot be guessed from everyday experience. While students already had some intuitive sense about budgeting, their understanding of inflation’s erosion of savings, credit pricing, and the deposit guarantee scheme was initially weak. The structured course bridged that gap, suggesting that even short-term, targeted instruction can replace vague financial instinct with verifiable knowledge. This is the critical difference between being vaguely aware that a loan is risky and being able to compare two loan offers using the interest rate and total cost.

Teachers’ Overwhelming Endorsement

The unanimous call by the 19 educators for mandatory financial literacy is noteworthy, especially given the sample’s direct exposure to the Practical Finances programme. Teachers identified money management, risk management, financial resilience, systemic thinking, confidence and adaptability as the competencies most developed. Their preference for the upper-secondary level aligns with the developmental stage just before young adults encounter real-world financial products—first salaries, credit cards, or student loans. It also signals a bottom-up push that could influence policymakers.

Open Questions and Limitations

The dataset, while internally consistent, remains small. With only 137 matched pre- and post-test observations, the results are not yet a national benchmark. The teacher survey includes just 19 respondents, all of whom had implemented the programme, introducing a positive selection bias. An independent, external evaluation with a control group would be needed to confirm whether the gains persist beyond the classroom and how they compare to alternative methods. Still, the magnitude and specificity of the improvement make a credible case for the programme’s effectiveness.

What This Means for Financial Education Policy

  • For the Bulgarian Ministry of Education: The jump from 13.6% to 52.9% top marks provides a concrete, quantitative basis to pilot the Practical Finances model more widely and to consider integrating its core topics into the national curriculum for upper-secondary students.
  • For Junior Achievement Bulgaria and similar organisations: Commission an independent evaluation using a control-group design with a larger, representative sample to turn these promising results into robust evidence that can support a mandatory financial literacy requirement.
  • For school leaders and teachers: Advocate for embedding topics like deposit guarantees, credit mechanics and insurance into the timetable, as these were the areas where formal instruction made the largest measurable difference.
  • For parents and students: Recognise that everyday money conversations are not a substitute for structured learning about inflation, credit and investment risk; seek out programmes that target the specific knowledge gaps this study identifies.