In a report out today, with a foreword from former education secretary David Blunkett, the Social Market Foundation – a cross-party think tank – sets out a roadmap towards effectively integrating financial education into the primary school curriculum, and lays out the distance we need to travel in order to get there. Drawing on a nationally representative survey of school teachers (see notes for survey breakdown), sponsored by Santander UK, the SMF found that only 1% of primary school teachers believe that their students’ level of financial literacy is adequate.
Those numbers should give pause to policymakers, who are increasingly keen on ensuring that young people’s education should set them up with necessary life skills like financial capabilities. The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, used her Labour Party conference speech to promise that in government she would ensure the maths curriculum has more ‘real world’ relevance, with financial education at the heart of it. The House of Commons education committee, whose chair Robin Walker will launch the report at an event in parliament later today, is carrying out an ongoing inquiry into the state of financial education.
In his foreword, Lord Blunkett, former education and employment secretary and Vice-Chair of the APPG for Financial Education for Young People, says that “By placing financial education more prominently in the primary school curriculum… we can ensure that we are setting up our children for a successful future.”
At present, financial education is only compulsory at the secondary school level in England, and as a result young people from more advantaged backgrounds are more likely to have received some form of financial education.
