More financial education in schools 'could prevent debt'
Published On 17 July 2007
More financial education in schools could have the result of reducing debt in the UK in the future, an industry expert has said.Last week, the government announced that it panned to make financial education more of a priority in the Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) section of the national curriculum.
Some financial institutions have criticised the decision, claiming that the changes do not go far enough to tackle problems of financial illiteracy among young people.
However, Alastair Mathews, director of policy at the Personal Finance Education Group, praised the move, saying that it was "a considerable step forward".
He added: "We think personal finance education will [help to lower levels of debt], and what we're trying to ensure is that personal finance education takes place in every school.
"Personal finance education is not going to necessarily turn everybody into a totally savvy consumer overnight.
"But doing it, we believe, is much better than not doing it. And at the moment far too few schools are doing anything about it at all."
Recent figures from the charity Credit Action showed that the total amount of person debt in the UK exceeded £1.3 trillion in April.
