Jaroslav Belás,

Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Zlin, Czech Republic

belas111@gmail.com

FINANCIAL LITERACY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS. CASE STUDYFROM THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA

Anh Nguyen,

Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Zlin, Czech Republic,

 anhnhu80@gmail.com

Luboš Smrčka,

University of Economics Prague, Prague, Czech Republic,

smrckal@vse.cz

Jozef Kolembus,

DTI University in Dubnica nad Váhom, Slovak Republic; email: jozef.kolembus@gmail.com

Eva Cipovová,

The University of Finance and Administration,

Prague, Czech Republic,

evacipovova@gmail.com

 Abstract.Financial literacy is an important area of education for secondary school students, because appropriate management of personal finance  creates preconditions for successful and quality life. In this article we examined the level of financial literacy of students of commercial academies in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Our results confirmed that the learning process in both countries has some reserves. The average value of correct answers regarding the savings was 16.33% in Slovakia and 21.33% in the Czech Republic, which can be classified as very low. Significantly improved results were shown by the respondents when it comes to consumer loans. The average value of correct answers in Slovakia was relatively high (87.76%). In the Czech Republic, the average value of the correct responses was 61.33%. The average value of correct answers on the use of payment cards abroad was relatively high both in Slovakia (77.55%) and the Czech Republic (73.33%). Our research, which was significantly more extensive than presented in this article, demonstrates that the intensity of interest in the socio-economic system is relatively low and students are not adequately motivated to be proactive. Therefore, we propose to create more room for intense use of advanced teaching methods in order to improve application skills of students. In this context, it is necessary to focus on promotion of personal initiative among the students.

Received: May, 2016

1st Revision: September, 2016

Accepted: November, 2016

DOI: 10.14254/2071-789X.2016/9-4/12

JEL Classification: A22

Keywords: financial literacy, savings, consumer loans, payment card.