Primary schools 'should teach budgeting'

A SENIOR accountant has called for personal finance and simple budgeting to be incorporated into the school curriculum, from primary school upwards.

The call backs an announcement made by former education secretary Fiona Hyslop in October that pupils would be taught personal finance under the new school curriculum due later this year.

Andrew Morrison of Glasgow based accountancy firm Martin Aitken & Co, warned: "If we don't teach our children about basic personal finance, we will spiral downwards in a vicious circle of indebtedness, social injustice and consumer debt."

He said classes on savings, mortgages, pensions, paying bills, and on credit and debit cards should start in primary schools.

Many private schools already hold compulsory money management lessons for their pupils. The approach to the subject in state schools, however, varies.