It has now been confirmed that more than 100,000 people have signed an e-petition which calls for education on financial issues to be mandatory in schools.
The petition, which was launched by MoneySavingExpert’s Martin Lewis and supported by the consumer campaigning charity Which?, aimed to force the government to make financial education in schools compulsory. Those supporting the campaign believe such a move would help young people manage their money and avoid debt problems in the future.
The e-petition now has enough backing behind it to warrant a government response, which reads as follows:
“The government agrees that young people should have access to good quality personal finance education, so that they leave school with the knowledge and confidence to manage their money effectively.
“The existing PSHE programmes of study include elements aimed at ensuring that by the time they leave school pupils should be able to manage their money, understand and explain financial risk and reward, and identify how finance will play an important part in their lives and in achieving their aspirations. We are currently carrying out a review to determine how best to support schools to improve the quality of all PSHE teaching.”
However, this response was not received very warmly by Mr Lewis, who said that PSHE was not the solution as it does not include personal finance as an essential element, nor is it compulsory. He added that it was “slightly depressing to be greeted with such political waffle over the petition.”