Should personal finance be taught in schools?

David Field

Personal finance has always been exactly what it says on the tin: personal. Your finances were your own and if you had money problems you confided with a close friend. However, this doesn't seem to be working out that well. Figures from Credit Action show that the total UK debt at the end of October totalled £1,268 billion, an increase of 11.3 per cent in the last 12 months. People are borrowing more and more, often to pay back previous borrowings and becoming sucked in by a high interest 'consolidation' offerings.

A lesson in personal finance at school could be an extremely useful thing, with an ingrained financial acumen instilled early on in a child's life. The problem with our consumer culture is that people want an endless amount of things and often they get exactly what they want. Children see their parents finding the money for endless computer games and then come to realise that this is possible through loans. The natural progression from this thought it to rely on the same things when they get older.

Financial companies and lenders definitely have a part to play in this cycle of debt. If the products aren't there then people can't get into debt, but counter arguments state that many people find them manageable and that they help drive our steady economic growth. However, national debt needs to be lowered, both public and private, so in terms of financial products, these need to be cut back.

Lessons in personal finance are a good idea as long as they spell out to teenagers the dangers of borrowing money that they can't afford to pay back. Rather than a warning about losing your home in small print on a poster, this needs to be made clear as daylight to people. Others sharing their experiences and reality checks for kids who think credit cards are wish lists are necessary.

Britain's personal debt is increasing by £1 million every four minutes and something needs to be done for the current generation, not just the future. Kids may well learn the easy way about debt at school, but they'll soon learn the hard way when they're saddled with debts from mum and dad. Government marketing campaigns need to be more high profile and financial products need to be reined in; before it's too late.