Essex Mum says money skills in school curriculum will "set children up for adulthood"
A new survey's found three in four teachers think students leave education without the financial skills needed for adulthood
Last updated 19th Feb 2024
A mum from Essex is telling us money and financial skills are lacking from the curriculum - and that her children would benefit from learning more about the topic.
It follows a Money and Pensions Service (MAPS) survey which found that three in four teachers think students leave education without the financial skills needed for adulthood.
"They don't know what they're looking for on their payslip"
Cheryl Sharp is a mum-of-four, and the founder of Pink Pig Financials, an accountancy firm in the county:
"When the children go out and become adults, get their first jobs, they don't know what they're looking for on their pay slip. They just hear they're getting this money and they think all of that's going to go into their bank account.
"And then at the end of the month, their very first pay packet, they're like, oh, where's all my money gone kind of thing? Because of tax and National Insurance. So even at that lowest level, they need to understand that actually, you're going to start paying tax, you're going to start paying National Insurance, but it also comes into the budgeting side.
"So once they've got their first pay packet, be that from a Saturday job or actually an adult in their first full time job, they need to then learn how to budget and spend the money where it needs to be spent first and then have that pot of money for fun stuff afterwards. Because you've always got to have the fun stuff."
"Going to be very difficult to cram something else in"
Scott Lyons works at a primary school in the East of England:
"Considering we are doing emotional and mental health stuff, alongside two hours of sport, music and key subjects, it's going to be very difficult to cram something else into a already very loaded curriculum.
"What we do in primary school really well is building up relationships and trust. We focus on those development skills, rather than bombarding them with details of how interest rates or loans work.
What do teachers in the East of England think?
Based on 81 teachers surveyed by MAPS:
99% think it’s important that schools teacher their students about money
When do you think it should start? Nursery/pre-school (21%), Primary ages 5-7 (50%), primary ages 8-11 (17%), secondary ages 11-16 (11%), sixth form/college (2%), don’t need to (1%)
77% think most young people leave school/college without the money skills they need for adulthood
Why do they think this is happening?
Other subjects take priority (91%)
Teachers don’t know where to find the right resources/support (29%)
Not enough confidence and skills among teaching staff (23%)
What's the Government said on this?
The Department for Education says financial knowledge is already a compulsory part of the national curriculum for those aged between 5 and 16 - in Maths and Citizenship.