MSE News: Compulsory financial education plans axed

melcmgr · 7 April 2010 at 6:26PM

It is all very well educating people on debt, but when credit is so easy to come by, there is not exactly any reason for people not to get into it. Credit ratings agencies are fine, but given that they do not discriminate between people who lie and who are honest when they apply for credit, what hope do we have of weeding out people who really cannot afford it (I speak from a position where I know this to be a fact)?

What we need is some way of basing credit on actual, realistic affordability, not some assumed position.

Financial education will not work when a child goes home and sees their parents applying for credit willy nilly. Better to clamp down on the banks first.

faffa · 7 April 2010 at 6:41PM

Debt is far too easy to get into due to the amount of credit that is thrown at us. Also children/young adults are encouraged to get into debt because the cost of uni fees are so high. We are unable to support out son when he goes yet despite us teaching him about the responsibility of money, we know that debt for him will be inevitable, which is incredibly scary. Yet successive governments don't seem to care.

forumlogic · 7 April 2010 at 6:44PM

Now is the time to press all the political parties to ensure that they put financial education in their manifestos - there is still time to make a difference!!

WestonDave · 7 April 2010 at 7:06PM

If Labour are going to try and make party political capital out of this the obvious question to fire back is why something this important was left to the fag end of a term in office, with everyone knowing full well for years that anything still on the agenda by April this year stood a high risk of getting dropped in the last minute rush.

I would love to see this brought into schools but like many things, if its really important to you that your kids learn things - teach them yourself. Incidentally one of the statements made on a course I was on recently learning to be a personal money coach was that the best teachers in this subject are those with personal experience of how it can all go wrong, rather than those who have the theoretical knowledge of how to do it right!

I would hope to see a campaign for this to be brought into schools preferably backed by an extension of the pilot scheme run by chartered accountants to provide partnership between money professionals and schools to help give confidence and backing as this subject is taught.

rozzaj · 7 April 2010 at 7:07PM

This is an important part of any child's education but I'm not sure it's as important to politicans as it is to us. If you've spent time in schools these days you'll know how little time there is for actual learning so I'm not surprised this has been shelved. I do believe it's important for all children to made aware of financial matters because this is sooo important for their future. I think though that this is more for others (rather than schools themselves) to do because we cannot rely on the government making it a priority. Afterall, they will educate their own accordingly and the 'us' will continue to be caught out by credit card companies sugar coating bad deals and so cashing in on ignorance.

I think we need a Champion to start a society/group/organisation represented across the country which organises short courses for children and their parents on financial matters etc. Over to you Mr Money Saving Expert!

euterpe13 · 7 April 2010 at 7:09PM

If reading Dickens were compulsory in schools, children would all learn the financial philosophy of Mr. Micawber - it stood me in good stead, and I am not and have never been in debt, simply because I do not spend what I do not have...

DarkConvict · 7 April 2010 at 7:14PM

You can even put something up about in on the website

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/

During the official campaign period for the General Election the e-Petitions system will be closed to new submissions and signatures. The Government will also not issue responses to petitions during this period. This is to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Civil Service Code on party political neutrality.

Any petitions due to close between the announcement of the General Election and 3 June will have their deadlines extended to 3 June. Petitions will reopen for signatures upon the formation of the Government following the General Election.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time.

niccatw · 7 April 2010 at 7:18PM

The reason it seems to have been dropped is bacause they couldn't reach an agreement on parent's opting out on sex education... maybe if there wasn't an option (i.e. PSHE was compulsary!) we'd have less debt and we wouldn't have the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe!

niccatw · 7 April 2010 at 7:23PM

rozzaj wrote: »

I think we need a Champion to start a society/group/organisation represented across the country which organises short courses for children and their parents on financial matters etc. Over to you Mr Money Saving Expert!

Great idea in theory, but it would need to be free at the point of entry or it wouldn't be getting to the people that need it most - hence teaching it in schools is a sensible idea - and surely cost effective in the long term?

If that's simply not an option, then it needs to be as accessible to adults as basic literacy and numeracy skills courses are. At least that way, parent's have the knowledge needed to pass onto their kids. Top down, bottom up approach!

Though, there still needs to be more onus on the companies involved, a bit like the smoking/aclohol warnings we get. How many of us had parent's who were great with money (though I didn't

) only to still succumb to consolidation loans or sugar-coated credit card deals?

English_lil · 7 April 2010 at 9:01PM

I am a maths teacher, and decided last term to take it into my own hands to teach finance to our kids (inspired by Martin). However this is far from ideal, as I have no qualifications in anything finance related.

I teach low ability children in a very poor area. Our students are not likely to get many or any GCSEs, its the least we can do to equip them with the skills they'll need to survive in the modern world. Our school has around 40% accessing free school dinners (an indicator of deprivation), which is, I think , over 4 times the national average. Our children come from very low income backgrounds, they will continue to make the wrong financial decisions that their parents made, in turn they will pass it to their children. We need to make financial education compulsory to break the circle of deprivation.

At the moment we are managing virtual bank accounts online on piggybankinc dot com (cant post links yet). I can't fathom how the government can move forward with academies and functional skills but not back teaching finance and debt management. I say we throw some teaching union weight behind the issue! :hello:

MSE News: Compulsory financial education plans axed

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