FOOL'S EYE VIEW
Money In The Classroom

By Jane Mack (TMFJane)
November 26, 2001

A couple of weeks ago we wrote about how parents can help their children to learn how to budget. Now it's the turn of the teachers and, boy, do they have lots of resources.

At the moment the teaching of personal finance in schools is a voluntary aspect of the National Curriculum although elements of it will become compulsory in September 2002. And that means that teachers need to learn how to teach it.

Take a look at the website of the Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg). The organisation was set up six years ago to lobby government to introduce personal finance into the school curriculum. Having succeeded in that task, it has, with the help of various financial institutions, built up a collection of resources that teachers and pupils can access via the Internet. I really wish this sort of thing had been around when I was at school - I might not have spent so much time staring out the window as my teacher droned on and on in all those boring maths lessons.

My favourite has to be the idea of Britannic Street. It's a multi-media package based around a soap opera and it's full of characters who all have financial dilemmas in one way or another. Pupils watch the video to get to know them and can then use an interactive website to learn how to come up with solutions to their various problems. How to afford a Robbie Williams concert ticket, for example! The teaching package has become so popular since its launch last year that 70% of UK secondary schools now have a copy of it.

I've also had a go at playing a little online game for children. You start at age 15, and answer 20 finance and general knowledge questions on the way to retirement at 65 - at which point you get to see if you're going to be living in penury because of all the spending mistakes you've made.  (Unfortunately I fell down a bit on my general knowledge so didn't end up with as much as I'd intended!)

Many of these resources are free to schools and pfeg is to be commended for persuading so many organisations to come up with the money to sponsor them. 

Nevertheless, it's all very well having access to lots of lovely resources on the Internet but teachers still need to know how to teach the subject of personal finance in the classroom. So, with the backing of the government and the Financial Services Authority, pfeg has gone one step further today by launching a new initiative in 400 secondary schools around England.

Called Excellence and Access, the range of schools taking part in the project includes comprehensive, grammar and special schools and even a secure unit for young offenders. Teachers will be trained first with their Local Education Authorities and will then get practical support from pfeg-employed specialists who will go into the schools to work with them.

The idea is that at the end of the four-year project methods of teaching personal finance will have been thoroughly tried and tested in the classroom so they can then be disseminated nationally. And by the end of it, at least 128,000 children should know enough about how to manage their money to make informed decisions when they finally venture out into the big wide world of work.

About time too!