MSE News: Prime Minister responds on financial education in schools

daska

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Lets think, I could do that in one sentence.

Don't spend more than you have.......

There you go, do you think it would work? No, I don't think so either.

While I agree in principle I suspect that is a little simplistic. Everywhere children look they are bombarded with lending and borrowing being part of everyday life. Student loans, housing bonds, mortgages, credit cards even the government borrows. And a smallish mistake that can't be rectified easily can quickly escalate. In contrast to the example of the bankrupt above: in my twenties I found myself having to explain the impact of compound interest and minimum payments on a credit card to an LSE graduate because he genuinely believed that all credit cards were set up so that you would pay off the debt in no more than 12 months!!!

gingertips

Why would David Cameron ever force schools to educate our kids in financial matters? After all. his cronies would be out of pocket as they wouldn't be able to make billions of pounds lending through easy credit?!

Im almost 40 now, but when I was 18, credit was so simple to get hold of - banks & financial organisations, as well as stores were all falling over themselves to give credit to a young person - the earlier they can hook you then the more money they can make from you!!!

Nothing has changed - the way that they push easy credit - take Debenhams as a great example - every time I go to the till to pay for items, I am offered easy credit & when I politely say no thank-you the response has been as severe as "What? You don't want to save 10% off your bill today? Are you mad or something?". No Im not mad Miss Sales Assistant - I'm simply too old to fall for that line...been there done it, wore the t-shirt & paid for it for many many years after the t-shirt wore out...!

But good for you Martin - I realise that you have a captive interest in getting this on the agenda to raise the profile of MSE. But why not - you do a grand job of saving people money & reminding people not to be mugs that the large corporations want us to be!!!

Errata

aha ..... 'reviews'. Take minutes to set up and years to complete.

mbb123

"I am also of the view that parents can play an equally crucial role in helping young people to become financially aware in their day-to-day lives." David Cameron`s quote.

this is commenting on a generation that has been getting further and further in debt borrowing more than they can afford and spending more than they earn for decades. how are these people going to be able to help the next generation become financially aware?

daska

mbb123 wrote: »

"I am also of the view that parents can play an equally crucial role in helping young people to become financially aware in their day-to-day lives." David Cameron`s quote.

this is commenting on a generation that has been getting further and further in debt borrowing more than they can afford and spending more than they earn for decades. how are these people going to be able to help the next generation become financially aware?

Quite, they can and often do play a crucial role (My grandpa taught me the fundamentals of double entry bookkeeping when I was nine), but they'll only help their children to become financially aware if they're aware themselves!

stephencoin

This is a really interesting debate. I signed the petition and also helped to vote in this government. There is a big gap between what they say and what they actually do. I don't think anyone could disagree that we need to include the skills of understanding budgeting and credit. School is the best way to educate the young into a sustainable way of living and understanding about money. I know too many people who have been made bankrupt or evicted because of difficulty budgeting. I think that this subject could be incorporated into the curriculum with minimum extra work for teaching staff. Another method would be to use an external source of teaching, with trained "money experts" going into schools. This could include the use of videos made by Martin Lewis aimed at the youngsters and funded by financial institutions.

In short David Cameron should be ashamed for the political answer that says we've heard you but we're not going to do anything to make this happen.

kevanf1

Perhaps the reason David Cameron doesn't want our kids to be more financially astute is because they would find out the truth about the skewed funding system in education. Try looking up the figures for money spent on each pupil in England alone. Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will be the same I suspect so I am not singling out England. Dependant on the region there are some vastly different amounts spent on each pupil per education year. This is totally unfair and it's our children who are suffering.

This situation has gone on for years, in fact, decades! No wonder we have people out there who don't know the truth of it when we have not been taught basic fundamentals of finance for so long. Just the simple fact of being able to work out and set household budgets will instil our children with a knowledge that will fare them well in the future and also allow them to realise when they are being done over by crafty 'money men'.

Consumerist

My question is: Who is going to teach the teachers about finance? Or will it be a case of the blind leading the blind?

fatal1955

The prime minister's mention of parents' involvement shows he doesn't understand the problem (or doesn't want to acknowledge it). One of the major reasons for the economic mess we're in now is ignorance about debt, interest rates etc. amongst the parents' generation (i.e. our generation). If we depend on parents to take the primary responsibility for their childrens' financial education then for many families we simply perpetuate the spend-now-be-unable-to-pay-later mentality and the suffering and poverty which it can lead to. Unfortunately, it's what our entire consumer society is founded on ... and the government's decision to force students going to Uni into enormous lifelong debt isn't helping either.

Ban the word "credit"! Require them to be called "borrowing cards," "borrowing ratings" etc.!

scottme

What a weak, disappointing, slopey-shouldered response! Martin's reply is good but honestly, there's absolutely no point in expecting this government to do anything about it.

Let's face it, the only way anything is likely to happen anytime soon will be if MSE sponsors, supports, defines, encourages, and manages through to completion a set of teaching modules that schools can easily pick up and use as the basis of lessons in financial awareness. With 100,000 people behind the effort, how hard can that be?