Give children financial education textbooks, say Tories

8 April 2018, 06:28

Schools should be provided with free textbooks to teach children about personal finance, the Tories have said.

The party wants to see a scheme recently launched for English secondary schools duplicated in Scotland.

As part of the English initiative half a million financial education textbooks will be distributed to schools to help pupils learn about savings and debt.

The idea arose out of a collaboration between financial education charity Young Money and Martin Lewis, founder of the popular MoneySavingExpert website.

Tory economy spokesman Dean Lockhart said the Scottish Government could offer limited funding for a similar scheme in collaboration with business.

He said: "The nuts and bolts of education will always be the traditional subjects.

"But preparation for the real world is also essential, and that's where this scheme could come into play.

"The wheels are already in motion south of the border, and we don't want our youngsters to be left behind.

"It would not have to be overly expensive to provide these books, and could be done either in partnership with the business community or from Scottish Government funds.

"With more and more youngsters accessing information online, the cost of actually printing these books could be kept low too.

"It's essential our young people learn about all aspects of personal finance.

"It will improve their own education, and might even help the wider economy further down the line with a generation of young people more knowledgeable about money and how to use it."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Financial education is a core aspect of learning within Curriculum for Excellence and there are already a range of resources available to schools to support young people's financial skills, encourage a savings ethos at an early age and help teach children about issues such as debt and money management.

"Schools have partnerships with a range of financial organisations providing support and guidance to classrooms such as the RBS MoneySense programme and Lifeskills Barclaycard programme, HMRC sessions on money, work and taxation and a range of other excellent initiatives.

"In addition, schools in Scotland participate in Money Week - a themed week where classrooms work on issues related to money."