More schools are teaching personal finance but classes are irregular and many teachers do not feel comfortable teaching the subject, a new survey reveals.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) today published a Schools Benchmark survey, involving 1,000 schools across the UK. The survey found that the main barrier to providing effective personal finance education was a stretched school curriculum.
Most schools felt that learning about managing money was important for students but, while 48% of primary schools and 91% of secondary schools were delivering some form of personal finance education, it was irregular and lacked assessment.
The schools not providing personal finance education pointed to a lack of space or time in the curriculum. Primary schools that did not teach the subject said it was not appropriate for the age group.
About 70% of primary schools and 74% of secondary schools only taught the subject once or twice a term and fewer than one-third of primary teachers and one-quarter of secondary teachers felt confident in teaching the subject, the survey revealed.
The FSA chief executive, John Tiner, said: "If financial education does not become widespread, there are serious consequences for young people. The experiences of their elders have already shown us that those who struggle to manage their finances will be less effective at work, their relationships will suffer, and debt may spiral out of control.
"Through our work we will help to ensure that millions of children are ready to take on financial responsibility when it arrives - whether in the form of their first savings account or their first mobile phone bill."
The government is committed to giving personal finance greater prominence in the revised curriculum, to be introduced in 2008.
Learning Money Matters, a collection of resources produced collaboratively by the FSA and the Personal Finance Education Group, will build on the curriculum changes and provide personal finance education to more than 1.8 million children in 4,000 schools in the next five years.
