Credit crunch on the curriculum

Published on Monday 5 October 2009 22:03

SCOTTISH ministers want schoolchildren to learn how to get through the credit crunch and use money responsibly in the future.

Education secretary Fiona Hyslop yesterday announced that every child in Scotland will get lessons in basic financial skills at school.

It follows a year where Scotland's reputation for prudence took a battering after the failure of its two biggest banks – RBS and HBOS – partly down to the risks taken by people like Sir Fred Goodwin.

It is hoped that lessons in basics may also help children avoid the mistakes of some of their parents with personal borrowing another major cause of the crisis.

Financial education is already taught in some schools but research for the Scottish Government has found this is patchy.

Experts are to be asked to draw up a plan for improving it.

Yesterday, Ms Hyslop said that she wanted to ensure young people have a strong understanding of financial and money-management skills.

"This is critical – particularly at this time of credit crunch economic uncertainty and change," she said.

"That's why we are now moving to ensure the new curriculum gives every pupil the personal finance skills they need to prosper."

Ms Hyslop highlighted research commissioned by the Scottish Government and published yesterday which found that the teaching of finances was patchy.

"Financial education is not a subject or curricular area and has low status and priority for many schools, particularly local authority secondary schools," said the report.

"This means that financial education is often delivered on a piecemeal and inconsistent basis."

It is often taught through special events rather than regular lessons, and the subject sometimes forms part of other subjects like maths and enterprise education.

Ms Hyslop added: "The research demonstrates that many schools provide effective financial education for pupils and that a wide number of organisations – in both the public and private sectors – are offering support to schools.

"But that is not good enough. We need to make sure that no child misses out and every school in Scotland offers the high-quality financial education our young people need."

The move was welcomed by Otto Thoresen, the chief executive of life insurance and pensions company Aegon UK.

He is also chairman of the Personal Finance Education Group, a charity that develops learning and teaching materials for schools in England and Wales.

Mr Thoresen said: "Financial education in schools is vital to making sure future generations are more resilient against economic downturns and upheavals because they manage their money better.

"All parts of the UK can learn from the best of what's happening in particular countries."

How changes will work in the classroom

THE Scottish Government hopes that the lessons will fit into the curriculum at various levels, from learning to count to providing life skills and complement tasks already taught in schools.

It is also hoped youngsters will be given real-life scenarios to reinforce the lessons. "Credit crunch" skills will include:

&149 Managing money and financial planning;

&149 Understanding and managing earnings, benefits and credit;

&149 Managing a budget in household and work-related situations;

&149 Estimating and calculating;

&149 Reading timetables, calculating distances and journey times, reading maps;

&#149 Interpreting information in a variety of graphs and tables.