Extract from Education questions: Financial Education - June 21
Tuesday, 22 June 2021 08:20
Financial Education Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab) What
assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing
financial education to children at primary school level. The
Minister for School Standards (Nick Gibb) It is important that
pupils are well prepared to manage their money, make sound
financial decisions and know where to seek further information.
Financial education forms part of the citizenship curriculum, which
can be taught at all key stages but is compulsory at key...Request free trial
Financial
Education
(Stockton North) (Lab)
What assessment he has made of the potential merits of
providing financial education to children at primary school
level.
The Minister for School Standards ()
It is important that pupils are well prepared to manage their
money, make sound financial decisions and know where to seek
further information. Financial education forms part of the
citizenship curriculum, which can be taught at all key stages but
is compulsory at key stages 3 and 4.
In 2013, the Money and Pensions Service found
that our money habits and attitudes towards finance are formed by
the age of seven. However, eight years later the Government have
still not made financial education compulsory within the primary
school curriculum. Does the Minister agree that teaching our
children positive saving habits at a young age is vital to their
financial futures, and that dormant assets from the savings and
investment sector could fund initiatives such as KickStart Money to
deliver primary financial education for all?
The priority at primary school must be to ensure that all
children have a firm grasp of the fundamentals of arithmetic: that
they can add, subtract, multiply and divide; that they know their
times tables by heart; and that they can add, subtract and multiply
fractions. In 2013, the Government introduced a new primary maths
curriculum that includes ratio and proportions, that teaches pupils
to use percentages and that introduces them to algebra. In year 2,
pupils are introduced to the values of our coinage. That is all
fundamental to being secure in handling finances and being taught
financial education at key stage 3.
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