The petition for compulsory financial education for young people reached 100,000 signatures this week, the trigger for a possible MPs' debate in Parliament.
More than 250 MPs are part of the all-party parliamentary group on financial education for young people, which has also called for compulsory money lessons. The petition also has the support of consumer groups such as Which? and the Consumer Credit Counselling Service.
Martin Lewis, of moneysavingexpert.com, which created the petition, said: “It’s a national disgrace – in the 20 years since student loans came in, we’ve educated our youth into debt when they go to university, but never about debt.
“We’re a financially illiterate nation, with millions caught by mis-selling, over-borrowing and being ripped off. The easiest, cheapest and most important fix is to get financial education in every school.”
He added: “Unless it is compulsory, head teachers can’t focus resources to make it happen. ”
Gavin Oldham, chief executive of The Share Centre, said: “It is very much in the interest of the financial services industry to serve better-informed investors and customers and we would welcome proposals for more industry-based funding to make financial education in schools a reality. We now look forward to an early announcement from the Government that it will make time for the debate.”
This month sees the relaunch of the Shares4Schools competition, sponsored by The Share Centre. Last year the Scottish team from Tarbert Academy in Argyll were among the runners-up, having led the field of 64 teams for much of the eight-month competition. The six-strong team made an impressive 31% return, against 5% for the FTSE-100, and made a profit of £467 for the school on the £1500 of seed capital.
The school is back in the hunt again this year, along with teams from Dollar Academy, Glenrothes High School and Kings Park in Glasgow.
John Welsh, depute head at Tarbert, said: “It really gets the youngsters thinking about the markets, we have a local businessman who comes in and talks to them about shares.”
The eight-strong team are all 16-year-olds in S5. “Markets are going to be really difficult,” Mr Welsh said. “Last year they found some investments that went quite well. At the moment they have only invested in one company so far.”
Research by Clydesdale bank published this week revealed that almost half of parents (48%) believe teaching children about the value of money is in the top three most important values they can impart, after morals (75%) and good manners (74%).
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