MSE News: Schools should teach financial education, MP says

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Former_MSE_Helen
Former_MSE_Helen Posts: 2,382 Forumite
in Student MoneySaving
"Calls in Parliament for financial education to become a compulsory part of the school curriculum were made this week..."
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Schools should teach financial education, MP says

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  • Ken68
    Ken68 Posts: 6,825 Forumite
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    My Member of Parliament say it is already part of the education syllabus, but he is a banker, so that's OK then.
  • Credit-Crunched
    Credit-Crunched Posts: 2,212 Forumite
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    Before we start educating children, I think we should start on the numerical competency of teachers!
  • bargainbeater
    bargainbeater Posts: 8 Forumite
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    For my money this can't come quick enough, I work with families the majority are deprived and I can tell you from experience 95% have debts. About half of these have debts between £15,000 and £25,000 despite being lone parents, on benefits and having no collateral. The majority cannot believe how much debt they have when we sit down and work it out. Even the clients who believe they are 'good with money' can't seem to comprehend that having a debt of £800 won't ever be cleared by paying £5.00 per week to the moneylender. We have offered money management classes on several occassions with very little uptake. Educating them in school will hopefully make a difference.
  • Credit-Crunched
    Credit-Crunched Posts: 2,212 Forumite
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    bargainbeater wrote: »
    For my money this can't come quick enough, I work with families the majority are deprived and I can tell you from experience 95% have debts. About half of these have debts between £15,000 and £25,000 despite being lone parents, on benefits and having no collateral. The majority cannot believe how much debt they have when we sit down and work it out. Even the clients who believe they are 'good with money' can't seem to comprehend that having a debt of £800 won't ever be cleared by paying £5.00 per week to the moneylender. We have offered money management classes on several occassions with very little uptake. Educating them in school will hopefully make a difference.

    I see the same, the things that I dont get is the fact that they smoke, play the lottery at least £5 a week, have the max sky package at £125 a month and then have the best wide screen TV's on tick with a well known 'sunnyhome' finance provider.

    Then when you challenge to see where cuts can be made they would rather cut our food before the above, you can take a horse to water as they say..
  • bargainbeater
    bargainbeater Posts: 8 Forumite
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    Sometimes they produce bank statements with a couple of visits to 'GAME' and subscriptions to 'LOVEFILM' on top of the 'SKY' package, they don't have time to work and wonder why their kids don't communicate and I wonder why babies that can't even walk need to wear the latest designer trainers and travel round in designer buggies because the parents wouldn't dream of having 2nd hand. Some of the children I meet have not ever been to the beach - which is free entertainment - even more unbelievable given we live in a resort on the south coast, they say they can't afford to do anything with their kids
  • Owain_Moneysaver
    Owain_Moneysaver Posts: 11,357 Forumite
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    Could we teach them to read, write and do sums first?

    Financial education might follow of its own accord.
    A kind word lasts a minute, a skelped erse is sair for a day.
  • The_One_Who
    The_One_Who Posts: 2,418 Forumite
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    Ken68 wrote: »
    My Member of Parliament say it is already part of the education syllabus

    It is, at least it was at my school. It was never expressly named "financial education", but money and finance was normally used in practical maths examples. We also did budgeting and general life-living financial lessons as part of 'social education'.
  • Dunroamin
    Dunroamin Posts: 16,908 Forumite
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    We let MPs dictate the syllabus in school at our peril.
  • jollyme
    jollyme Posts: 343 Forumite
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    This HAS to be taught in schools along with understanding the potential implications of signing an agreement such as a phone contract, or credit card or tenancy agreement etc etc without reading and understanding it.
  • Bignee
    Bignee Posts: 4 Newbie
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    I used to work for a major high street bank who took banking education into schools, it was called Moneysense however we found it difficult and a very long process to get authorisation for this but once in it did work very well. As far as I know this is still ongoing also :j
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