Let's introduce a GCSE in how to handle money

Let's introduce a GCSE in how to handle money

Everyone agrees that personal finance education in schools is vital if today's children are not to end up in the same quagmire of debt as their parents. Unfortunately, the government is not ensuring that it gets a proper position in the national curriculum.

Personal finance is generally squeezed into personal, social and health education, a course that is not examined. From September, 'economic wellbeing' is to be added, and in 2010 it will also become part of the GCSE maths course.

But last week Ofsted reported that teaching personal finance across several areas of the secondary school curriculum often results in a lack of coherence and that schools are weak at monitoring students' progress.

'The main barriers... were pressures on curriculum time, teachers' lack of subject knowledge and expertise in this area, a lack of awareness of resources and other forms of support for the subject, and the very wide variation in the nature of post-16 provision. Training and development for non-specialist teachers... was rare,' it said.

The Department of Children, Schools and Families is giving money to the charity Personal Finance Education Group to allow it to support the provision of personal finance education in schools and colleges. This support ranges from running school banks to getting in consultants from the financial services industry to explain real financial issues.

But several headteachers I have spoken to really want an accredited.....continued below

Advertisement starts

---

---

Advertisement ends

personal finance exam that can add to their performance in the league tables. And Miriam Rosen, Ofsted's director of education, says: 'Accredited courses that lead to a formal education inspired a more coherent curriculum and sharper focus on the learning outcomes students were expected to achieve.'

If the government really wants to improve the nation's financial capability, it should introduce a personal finance GCSE. It's what we need.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008