Teaching About Money in Schools – Part 1

October 29, 2008 by Brendan

News

The current generation of children are bombarded with more information than ever about finance and money, and financial institutions, including mortgage lenders, are keen to ensure that this generation learn about how to manage their money so they know what they can afford to borrow and can make informed decisions.

Teachers in primary schools are starting to gently introduce our children to money matters, such as learning the various coins, learning to add and subtract using coins and how to save their pocket money for things they want. As they get older, they are learning the difference between credit cards and debit cards and about interest rates.

This can only be a good thing, as we note on CeMAP training courses, that many people are not aware of different financial products at all. Luckily, the syllabus covers everything very comprehensively, but it is important in our personal lives that we know these things, rather than only learning them if we want to train as mortgage advisors.

Initiatives such as ‘Money Week’ involve activities on budgeting for children as young as six or seven years old. Money Week is funded by Nationwide Building Society, which pledge £500,000 in a three year plan to boost schools financial education.

Activities include stories such as one about twins who want to buy a hamster from their local pet store. They work out how much pocket money they need, how much they can save and when they can get their hamster. They find they can save money and it has a happy ending.

The Nationwide is not the only company to be involved in this sort of project and in Part 2 tomorrow, we will discuss the other initiatives running, their failings and future plans.