Life schooling

The first error is in the opening statement – I can state without fear of contradiction that financial education is part of the Scottish curriculum.

In 2010, the Scottish Government published national policy documents to ensure that every child received an entitlement to financial education up to level 4 with Curriculum for Excellence.

This entitlement begins within early years’ education and continues through to when young people prepare for life after school. Indeed, the formal aspects of financial education in the Scottish curriculum have been secured through the Scottish Qualification Authority and the work it is doing with Lifeskills Mathematics and Personal Development Awards.

This work ensures that topics such as budgeting, saving, borrowing and interest rates are addressed and the successes young people achieve are recognised.

In many schools across Scotland, competent, enthusiastic teachers in all sectors are helping learners to make the connections between basic numeracy, money management and skills for life and work using excellent resources designed for 21st- century education.

These same teachers know that there are excellent people from the financial services sector who can make a valuable contribution in the classroom supporting their work. Stewart Ivory does not have a unique selling point in this area: there are many others who willingly work with teachers and young people to enhance the learning experiences and help to produce a more financially aware generation.

It is not helpful that Scotsman readers are misinformed in this way, yet again allowing critics to question media integrity. Scotland does, in fact, lead the way in the UK in this aspect of education and integrating financial education into the curriculum has been a major success.

Kenneth Ferguson

(formerly financial  education development  officer, Learning and  Teaching Scotland)

Kilmaurs Road

Edinburgh