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Wednesday Feb 07, 2007
Young, dumb and full of debt
Yesterday the Financial Times reported that Education Secretary Alan Johnson has decreed that lessons in financial literacy will remain part of the PSHE (Personal, Social, Health Education) part of the curriculum – which is completely voluntary in schools.
This is what Alan Johnson had to say about the importance of financial literacy for young people:
"It's more important than ever that today's school pupils understand how to manage the benefits, responsibilities and risks of making, borrowing and spending money."
From that quote you'd be forgiven for questioning why on earth it's still voluntary – given the pressure on resources in schools is it ever likely to be taught?
From our experience on TheSite.org, we're finding that this is increasingly an area that young people are concerned about. From threads on our discussion boards, to money questions on askTheSite, to the content on our "Money" section, it's definitely something that's relevant and worrying for young people and we're continually looking to develop how we support them with money worries.
Given that we're now over a trillion pounds in debt in this country isn't this something that should be a serious priority for both the Government and the private sector?
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 5:36 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]