This year, the Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Olympiad engaged over 2.4 million schoolchildren. High school students participated for the first time, addressing topics relevant to adolescents, such as organizing a party, protecting themselves from fraud, and avoiding being used as a money mule.
Students excelled at the "Hosting a Party Wisely" task, which involved event planning, considering potential losses, and efficient budget allocation, with 64% of participants successfully completing the task. Meanwhile, nearly half of the participants (49%) developed an efficient strategy for building eco-friendly facilities to maximize profit in the simulation game "Green City."
The hardest tasks were part of the "Financial Maze," a platformer game where students applied basic financial concepts like money, economy, and earnings. Another challenging task called "Fraudsters" saw only 45% of participants successfully avoiding scams.
"Children are not excited about simply answering questions – gamification is needed to spark their interest. They want to solve issues they may face in real life," explained Mikhail Mamuta, Head of the Service for Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion of the Bank of Russia. "This is why we developed real-life cases for them using the algorithms of popular games, such as procedural generation, where a participant has to overcome obstacles and make choices as the circumstances of the game change. The children had an opportunity to polish up their financial skills, including in an artificial stress situation."
The Olympiad took place on the educational platform UCHi.ru from March 4 to April 3, 2025, with schoolchildren across Russia undertaking the challenges. The majority of participants were from the Rostov Region, followed by the Kemerovo, Volgograd, and Moscow Regions and the Republic of Tatarstan.
The event was organized by the Bank of Russia, the National Priorities autonomous non-profit organization, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, along with the education platform, in line with the goals of the national project "Efficient and Competitive Economy." The Russian public and state children and youth organization "Movement of the First" supported the event.