Financial education in English schools is insufficient and should be expanded as a matter of urgency, the cross-party education committee has concluded.
The committee has today (22 May) published its findings following a six-month inquiry and set out a series of recommendations to the government.
Altogether, the committee received 92 written submissions from teachers and head teachers, banks and financial-education providers.
It said the written submissions it has read and the oral evidence it has heard have been unanimous on two central points.
The first is that providing children and young people with a financial education that is comprehensive and age appropriate is essential.
The second is that the provision of financial education in schools in England is currently inadequate and must be improved urgently.
Some of the words respondents used to describe it were “dismal”, “inconsistent” and “in a parlous state”.
The report said: “Despite widespread acceptance of the benefits and importance of financial education, the range of evidence we received was near unanimous that financial education in primary schools in England is currently insufficient and should be expanded.”
The committee said it heard evidence that children are using money at an increasingly young age and with greater independence.
It also heard that children under 11 are being reached by online marketing and may be subject to financial risks and pressures.
Therefore, the report suggested, “Effective financial education needs to begin during primary school years to prepare children for the financial world in which they increasingly participate.”
The committee also heard that more financial content should be included within the mathematics curriculum.
It is now urging the government to review the contents of the curriculum from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 4 in order to expand the provision at both primary and secondary school level.
The report said: “For 16-to-18-year-olds who are transitioning into the workplace, paying taxes, considering applying for a student loan and perhaps living away from home for the first time, financial education is also vital.
“And yet it is post-16 students who currently miss out on any form of compulsory financial education.
“Providing post-16 students with a comprehensive financial education as part of its plans to continue maths education to the age of 18 should be a priority for the government.”
There were also mixed views on where financial education should sit within the curriculum.
A small number of written submissions argued that it should have a definite home or that it should be delivered within a core subject.
The majority of evidence received, however, advocated a cross-curricular approach in which financial education is integrated across various subjects.
The committee said this approach has the benefit of offering students some form of financial education, whatever their subject preferences may be.
It has recommended that a financial education co-ordinator should be appointed by each school or multi-academy trust to provide a more coherent programme of study.
The government should produce guidance for MATs, teachers and school leaders on how best to appoint and support financial education leads, it said.
The report goes on to say: “There is a widespread view that teachers of financial education benefit from the use of teaching resources—including textbooks and lesson plans—but that the sheer quantity of resources to choose from can be overwhelming.
“The evidence suggests that although there is a huge range and number of resources available, they are not being effectively utilised in schools, with 50% of respondents to one young persons’ survey saying they did not have access to any financial-education materials in school.”
It said the Department for Education must work with subject associations, professional bodies and other government departments to curate and promote high-quality financial-education teaching materials and make these easily accessible to teachers and pupils.
“Providing teachers with opportunities for appropriate teacher training and continued professional development in financial education has clear benefits for both teachers and pupils,” said the report.
“Teachers feel more confident in planning and delivering lessons following even a small amount of training that improves the financial capability of the pupils they teach.
“However, access to financial-education training and development is often hampered by workload pressures and availability of staff to cover lessons.”
It also claimed Ofsted’s “inadequate evaluation of financial education in schools undermines the importance of financial education and adversely affects how it is viewed and prioritised by teachers and school leaders”.
It has therefore recommended that the Department for Education should work with Ofsted to review how it can improve its evaluation.
It has been almost ten years since the national curriculum in England was reformed and financial education was made a compulsory part of the curriculum.
The Financial Wellbeing Lab, working alongside schools and the University of Northampton, are already delivering financial skills education that works. It is not the financial services industry that will provide the solution, there is a lot more to it than delivering financial content. Teachers will be the key to the solution as they already have the skills to deliver a well designed set of modules on this. Integration across subjects is not required, it can be done without such a heavy handed and complex approach.