Financial education in schools a ‘pyrrhic victory’, Martin Lewis says

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The addition of financial education to the national curriculum in England in 2014 proved to be a “pyrrhic victory” due to resource cuts to private providers and the fragmentation of the teaching syllabus, according to the country’s most high-profile consumer champion.

Martin Lewis, founder of the Money Saving Expert advice website, told a cross-party committee of MPs on Tuesday that its inclusion was “in some ways counterproductive” since the plethora of private and voluntary groups that previously provided that financial education had been replaced with inadequate government alternatives.

“I think in many ways getting it on the curriculum was a pyrrhic victory,” Lewis told the House of Commons education select committee. “We got it on the national curriculum and at that point a lot of resources were pulled from the voluntary and private sector.

“Frankly, the amount of resources the state and government has put in since then has been flaccid to a detrimental level.”

Financial education was added to the national curriculum in England for local authority-run secondary schools in 2014. However, this attracted criticism as it was incorporated in non-core subjects such as personal, social, health, citizenship and economic education, or PSHCE, and excluded primary-age students.

Lewis also flagged inconsistencies in what students across the country learn. Since academies as well as free and private schools are not required to follow the national curriculum, many children may miss out on financial education, he said.

Frankly, the amount of resources the state and government has put in since then has been flaccid to a detrimental level

The testimony came as the committee nears the conclusion of its inquiry into how to improve financial education in schools. Charities including the Financial Times’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign (Flic) and MyBnk have called for better provision.

“Schools desperately need flexible, modern resources to boost their ability to deliver financial education,” said Aimée Allam, Flic’s executive director. “Giving teachers the right resources is key — Flic’s lesson plans, detailed maths explanations and engaging social media-style videos have transformed young people’s understanding of this crucial life skill.”

In a later committee session, MPs pushed schools minister Damian Hinds on whether financial education had reached an adequate number of students.

Conservative MP Robin Walker, the committee chair, asked whether the provision of financial education through PSHCE meant the subject’s reach was limited — currently only 22,000 children are studying for the citizenship GCSE, compared with 750,000 doing maths — and whether financial education should be rolled out to primary schools.

Hinds said that although the government wanted 2mn more children to get a “meaningful” financial education by the end of the decade, teacher time and resources were limited.

“Let’s be fair and realistic, there are a lot of things we want our kids to learn at school,” he said. “At the end of the day you create a balance, and with this we think the most important thing is to have that mathematical grounding.”

Hinds also stressed the importance of financial education outside of school.

“Not everything that is relevant to financial education is actually about financial products, some of it is about broader behaviours and attitudes, like delayed gratification,” he said.

However, the minister said the new Advanced British Standard financial education may play a more prominent role in maths education.

“There definitely is an opportunity, with more young people studying maths as either a major or a minor, to do that,” he said.