How well do you think financial education is taught in schools?

Cornucopia

Financial Education is either very poor, or an awful lot of people weren't paying attention in class.

Part of the difficulty comes from making financial products relatable to young people who have no access to them.

I think there are some basic "life lessons" in finance, but I see them more as something that can be accommodated on a single (web)page, rather than being a course module in themselves:-

- Income and Outgoings generally need balancing.

- Processing much of your income through revolving debt can reduce your spending power by a third or more.

- Responsible use of credit builds a good credit history.

- Don't undertake financial transactions you don't understand.

- Shop around.

AndyBSG

I was never taught anything about financial education in schools and my sister who is a teacher confirmed to me yesterday that they don't really teach kids anything about debt and financial matters.

burlington6

The education system needs an overhaul.

Why teach sin, cos and tan when basic financial situations everyone will experience in life would be far more beneficial.

I also think we are breeding and educating a generation of weak useless children who leave school without understanding the world is a ruthless place.

Pollycat

MSE_William wrote: »

Martin's giving evidence to MPs later this month on the topic of how well financial education is taught in schools.

Well, given the responses so far, that looks like being a short session for Martin & the MPs.

Cornucopia

Anyone who's frequented this forum for any length of time will have seen very naive financial questions being asked - often the same ones, over and over again.

I suppose those posters would be the ones to ask about this - what education did you receive such that you entered a PCP agreement on your car without understanding what it meant?

Thinking about it, it's the various debt products that people really need educating on. They can be complicated, have counter-intuitive or unforeseen consequences, and if they go wrong, they can affect your credit rating for some time.

Rachelp223

As a colleague at Barclays, I have presented our Moneyskills lessons to numerous year 7 classes over the last 3 years.
We look at basic banking language and products before working in groups to budget an event.
It is always very noticeable that only 1-2% of the students even consider their budget from the start. Most then end up needing to start again once they realise that their ideas are way too expensive for the budget.
My own children have been using a bank account and debit card from the age of 11 years to learn budgeting and prioritising. They have had it drummed into them the importance of growing and protecting their credit rating.
Just spending an hour with students is not nearly enough time to prepare them for their financial futures and unfortunately, I see adults from all generations who have little if no understanding of basic everyday financing. This has been a huge missing link in our education system for many years and needs to be rectified urgently.

physicsgirl

deannatrois wrote: »

I'd love it if they went through a few months of running a fictional home, with budgets, fuel payments, finding cheaper options etc. with awards for whoever managed to survive (buy enough food to live on, pay rent or mortgage and cover bills) and save the most. Awards could be given for fuel savings too (like getting homes insulated to save energy etc). A really good course could include cooking lessons, how to plan a varied healthy diet, reuse uneaten food in a new menu etc.

This is exactly what every school should do. But it doesn't happen. My OH is a Maths teacher and a form tutor (so covers the PSHE time), but they aren't told to do any financial education. I try to persuade him to do stuff with his kids, but he's only able to reach a small proportion of the school. It would be great if Martin could do a focus group with teachers from a variety of subjects and schools, and put together lesson plans, worksheets and powerpoints that could be downloaded for free (maybe from TES?).

securityguy

AndyBSG wrote: »

I was never taught anything about financial education in schools and my sister who is a teacher confirmed to me yesterday that they don't really teach kids anything about debt and financial matters.

What a shame that once people leave school it's impossible for them to learn anything else, and that there isn't some large electronic network available that contains a large amount of material on various topics, and that there isn't a website named after a river that sells books on a variety of topics.

What possible purpose would there be in laboriously teaching people about tax calculation when substantial, radical change happens every few years? For example, there is likely to be a complete change in pension tax relief over the next few years, and when I was doing my O Levels you were able to get tax relief on not only mortgage interest payments but also on life assurance premiums, and there was a completely different landscape with regard to the treatment of married couples in tax. Someone who left school in, say, 1983 and bought a house ten years later would get a hell of a surprise: every part of the finance and tax associated with that transaction had changed (no MIRAS, no relief on life assurance, substantial changes to eligibility, radically different real interest rates, etc, etc, etc).

The same argument applies, a fortiori, to benefits. They change. All the time. Teaching people about them is pointless, because by the time they (say) have children, it will be completely different.

Careyfairy3

I'm so glad I'm reading this as since I sold my business 2 years ago I've been thinking what I could do with my time and love the idea of going into schools to teach basic financial terms to kids.

I think these are such important life skills and would probably help the economy in years to come!


I also have 2 teenage sons, one of which left school last year and hasn't got a clue about any kind of financial basic information.


I'm very much on the ball when it comes to my income and outgoings and think all kids should be taught this ready for when they have to stand on their own two feet and possibly have a family of their own.


Looking forward to hear how this progresses.

Foxwood

The school I work in used to teach Personal Finance as a GCSE level subject to year 10 and 11 students with much success.
However, it has now been dropped completely from the timetable as they can no longer afford to employ the teacher who led the subject.
The other teachers are not interested in taking it on, as it involves more of their time spent on work they will not be paid for doing.
Unless more funding is made available to the school this subject will never be back on the timetable.