Should we be teaching finance in primary school?

Kickstart Money is a financial education initiative that has been set up by 20 of the leading saving and investment firms. It aims to test how effective it is to teach primary students about money management.

They use expert trainers from the charity MyBnk to deliver three 75 minute workshops in school across the country. They are teaching pupils about the differences between “want” and “need” and also about the benefits of saving.

So what did they find?

1. 3 months later, 70% of students were ‘working towards a saving goal’
   
   
2. 87% of pupils understood their financial decisions had consequences
   
   
3. 43% increase in the amount of students who could define ‘habit’
   
   
4. 67% increase in amount of pupils able to define ‘budget’ correctly.
   
   

What happens next?

The findings will be presented to MP’s and organisers will try to persuade the policymakers to begin teaching students about money management.

If changes are integrated we could see a big change in the economy. The amount of debt we have and the way we handle money could drastically change just from this small change, which would see the next generation of adult’s way ahead of us all.

What can we do now?

Even if the changes don’t come into place we can begin by taking actions ourselves as teachers. During maths lessons we can speak about money and how it works and use examples of it within our necessary teaching materials.

Share and create resources you think may help other teachers to help the next generation of people in this country and across the world.