MSE News: MPs' financial education in schools debate next week

mumps

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I agree with your last paragraph but it seems unlikely to me that teenagers will be motivated by issues such as mortgages and insurance.

Most teenagers I know want to learn to drive so that is a good start with insurance. Most teenagers won't be that interested in mortgages, although I had a mortgage when I was a teenager and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Student loans, loan to buy a car, mobile phone costs e.g. 2 year contract compared to buying a phone and getting a sim only deal. I think there are lots of financial topics that would interest them. My biggest worry would be who will teach the teachers?

Person_one

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I agree that functional Maths should be taught as part of the Maths curriculum (as it always used to be and at a much younger age than GCSE!) but I don't see that you can teach how interest rates work to students who don't understand percentages.

I'm pretty sure they still teach percentages, I can remember them and I only left school in 2001.

50% of 300 = 50/100 X 300 and all that!

It sounds like your issue is actually with quality of teaching (as always!) and your general poor opinion of everybody under 40 rather than the curriculum itself.

Person_one

mumps wrote: »

My biggest worry would be who will teach the teachers?

Good point! I know a primary teacher up to her ears in store card debt and consolidation loans.

addyann

Think money management is an essential skill which should be taught. I would be really interested in helping people budget, but the only qualifications seem to be for financial advisors/debt counselling. anyone know of any training for budgeting/money management, before it gets to the stage of needing debt counselling?

The_One_Who

Person_one wrote: »

I don't see why this couldn't be part of maths, at least at GCSE level,

Interest rates are already taught in schools, at least they were at mine. They make for quite good questions of the longwinded wordy variety, the type where you have to tease out what is actually being asked.

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I agree with your last paragraph but it seems unlikely to me that teenagers will be motivated by issues such as mortgages and insurance.

As part of my "financial education" class we were asked to work out an average budget with things like rent, utilities, food, mobile phone costs, etc. A lot of people hugely underestimated housing and utility costs but overestimated food costs. However, I really don't think people start to think about these things until they really have to, ie when they move out and need to worry about these things.

Swampmonster

I had no financial education at school and come from a reasonably well to do family that never talked about money. It wasn't the done thing.

I left home not having a clue how much 'life' cost.

The end result was that I have been in debt all my adult life and ended up going bankrupt two years ago.

The only good thing that has come out of this is that my children are very moneywise now, as we constantly talk about money and priorities as I never kept any part of the bankruptcy process from them. It was the best life lesson they could learn.

I believe Financial Education in schools is vital to empower our next generation to control their money and not let it control them and their future.

Eco_Miser

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

So how many hours would you see being allocated to this if you're going to include broad concepts like percentages and numeracy in general?

I have no idea of the hours devoted to any current curriculum subject, so my answer has to be 'Enough'.

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I've already said that I'm in favour of of applied, practical Maths being taught in schools but we need better Maths teaching generally, not an additional subject.

You said that while I was typing, sorry I missed that post.
Finance should probably be part of maths rather than seperate, but that would risk it being missed completely by the innumerate.

springboarder

MSE_Martin wrote: »

I've just clicked in to this thread. What an incredibly depressing bah-humbug response to what is fantastic news. Gees folks - thanks.

I KNOW!!

Many, many Congratulation to you and your team! This is an incredibly important and long overdue thing that will now be discussed next week by the people who can make it happen.

That alone is a important first step. What do the miserable ones want? Just to ignore the current situation and 'hope' things get better on their own?

Our children need us to get them all the assistance we can to help them figure their future financial lives out. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but please don't just dismiss those that are trying to do just that.

Person_one

springboarder wrote: »

That alone is a important first step. What do the miserable ones want? Just to ignore the current situation and 'hope' things get better on their own?

A lot of posters on here would be devastated if they woke up tomorrow and the world was suddenly perfect, it'd take away their biggest pleasure, complaining!

The_One_Who

springboarder wrote: »

What do the miserable ones want? Just to ignore the current situation and 'hope' things get better on their own?

I think most people (myself included) wanting something more substantial than just the idea of financial education. We wanted specifics like who would be teaching it, when would it be taught, who would it be taught to, how many schooling hours would be taken up with this, etc.

I think the concept of financial education is fine, but in practice it might not be. I know from my own classes that it wasn't done brilliantly and took up an hour that could have been spent elsewhere. The fact is that there are children leaving school with little or no grasp of the English language or of basic numeracy. If they cannot read and cannot do basic maths then no amount of financial education (such as interest rates or a commonsense "read the T&Cs) is going to help.

A lot of this practical stuff is learned in the home anyway, and it will be different for each person's circumstances. Some people hate budgeting, some people can't live without it. Trying to force these things on people doesn't help. Some people will only learn by going through things the hard way.