Only 1 per cent of primary school teachers believe their pupils have adequate financial skills, a poll shows.
Financial education should become a statutory part of the primary school curriculum, the Social Market Foundation (SMF) says in a report published tonight.
The SMF is also calling for financial education to be integrated into initial teacher training.
In a survey of primary school teachers for the report, 81 per cent said they did not have enough time to teach financial education.
Other barriers to teaching financial literacy in primary school that teachers cited included a lack of resources (43 per cent of respondents), low prioritisation (42 per cent) and lack of expertise (37 per cent).
Prioritise financial education, DfE told
The Department for Education should commit to prioritising financial education and calculate the funding needed to provide it effectively in primary, the SMF said.
“By placing financial education more prominently in the primary school curriculum, and committing to appropriate investment in teacher training and support and funding for schools’ provision, we can ensure that we are setting up our children for a successful future,” said Lord Blunkett, former education secretary and vice-chair of the All-party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education.
Only 12 per cent of primary teachers and 19 per cent of secondary teachers surveyed said they had taught more than one lesson on financial skills in the past year.
A significant minority of teachers said they would not be very confident teaching financial education (36 per cent at primary and 33 per cent at secondary).
The SMF also calls for financial education to be embedded across subjects, rather than just in maths, and for the DfE to fund and develop a hub of training programmes and resources.
Researchers suggest that funding could come from the government’s Dormant Assets Scheme - £87.5 million of this money has already been allocated to support people managing their finances.
Financial education is currently included in the national curriculum for secondary schools.
In 2023 research found that only two in five young adults were considered financially literate. Almost two-thirds of adults surveyed told those researchers that they did not remember having any financial education at school.
Martin Lewis, the TV presenter and founder of Money Saving Expert, has campaigned for financial education to be on the curriculum, but told MPs recently that schools have not had the resources to teach it properly.
Dani Payne, a senior researcher at the SMF, said that “disparate approaches” to financial education across education phases have limited progress in increasing financial literacy.
“The inclusion in the English primary curriculum, alongside greater support for teachers and funding for schools at both primary and secondary level, will be an important step forwards in preparing our children for success in adulthood,” she added.
The poll for the SMF was conducted by Teacher Tapp in November 2023 and included 9,662 teachers. Just over 2,600 primary teachers responded to the question about adequate financial literacy levels.
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
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