MPs recommend an urgent review of the maths curriculum to expand financial education and say schools should have a teacher responsible for coordinating this.
The Commons Education Select Committee’s report on financial education says that the national curriculum need not be re-drawn as a whole but that maths - from primary to GCSE - should be reviewed and enriched with more financial knowledge.
However, headteachers’ unions have said the curriculum must be reviewed as a whole to give teachers the space to fit another element in.
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “Any expansion of financial education in the ways suggested must be accompanied by a formal review of the curriculum and qualification offer.
“Currently, the curriculum is overcrowded and unmanageable - the content must be reduced to create the curriculum time needed to deliver this.”
Teaching time for financial education
Committee chair and former schools minister Robin Walker said it is not just maths where financial education can be emphasised - but citizenship and PSHE, too.
Mr Walker explained the committee heard that a lot of valuable financial education currently sits within the citizenship curriculum, but that very few people take a GCSE in it.
“I’ve felt for quite a long time the DfE has been able to get away with saying ‘look, there’s a good chunk of financial education content in the curriculum because a large chunk of it sits within citizenship’. But that doesn’t necessarily get the teaching time to deliver all that content,” he added.
Mr Walker added: “I recognise that schools are under pressure to do lots and lots of things - that’s why actually having a proper conversation about how the curriculum as a whole works effectively is important.”
MPs also recommend that a financial education lead across each school or multi-academy trust (MAT) could coordinate financial education across the curriculum.
The government should produce guidance for schools and teachers on how best to appoint these and consider providing CPD for the role, the report says.
Financial education coordinators
It also calls for the Department for Education to ensure all teachers have access to training in financial education at the start of their careers and for the department to curate teaching materials to help aid in the expansion of financial education.
“We’re sure that schools would be keen to appoint financial education coordinators but, unfortunately, there isn’t enough money for their existing staffing who are already at full stretch all the time,” said Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.
“The government’s own grounding in financial education is clearly lacking as it does not understand the necessity of providing sufficient funding to run the education system,” he added.
Mr Walker said it may not be realistic for smaller schools, particularly primaries, to have their own financial education coordinator, but suggested groups of schools may be able to have a coordinator across them through either their MAT or local authority.
The committee said it heard throughout its inquiry that many schools find it hard to prioritise financial education beyond basic concepts, and many teachers lack confidence in delivering it.
Maths-to-18 plan
The MPs’ report also recommends financial education is included in any plans for compulsory maths to 18 - though adds: “Given current struggles to recruit and retain specialist maths teachers, DfE should redouble its focus on this if its ambitions are to be met.”
All students would be required to take maths, in some form, to age 18 under the government’s plans for the Advanced British Standard (ABS). The ABS would see pupils take two minor subjects alongside three majors.
The DfE should consider opportunities for a financial literacy qualification that could be part of the ABS as a minor subject, the committee report adds.
MPs also recommend that the DfE explores how to increase take-up of core maths and functional skills, allowing for pupils who may not be able to take A-level maths to also improve their financial knowledge.
Analysis by the Royal Society last year found less than a third of state schools and colleges were offering core maths to students.
Embedding financial education
MPs recommend that the education secretary use powers in Section 35 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 to make regulations that make teaching “personal and societal elements” of financial education in PSHE compulsory.
Finally, the Commons Education Select Committee suggests the DfE work with Ofsted to improve its evaluation of financial education and citizenship provision.
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
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