MP says schools should teach ‘game of life’ rules in financial education call
Conservative MP Peter Bedford said that ‘we as a nation are not living within our means’.
Young people face the “game of life” without knowing how to manage their money, a Conservative MP has said.
Peter Bedford proposed a new law which would compel primary schools and further-education colleges to teach their students financial skills, amid fears online shoppers fall prey to “marketing wizards” instead of saving up.
Introducing the Financial Education Bill using the Ten Minute Rule process, Mr Bedford told the Commons: “We are collectively creating the greatest financial crisis of our time.
“The problem, quite simply, is that we as a nation are not living within our means.
“There was once a sense that people had certain financial responsibilities – to save for a house, to save for retirement, to save for holidays or for a ‘rainy day’ – but no more.”
The MP for Mid Leicestershire later added: “Offers pop up on our screens every day created by marketing wizards who know exactly where we are most vulnerable, using our search history to whet our appetite for new books, video games, appliances, overseas trips.
“And in a single click, we are committed and plunged further into the red.”
Mr Bedford told MPs that the solution “doesn’t require extra resource, just extra creativity”, as he said money has become “synonymous with anxiety”.
He referred to a government drive more than a decade ago to improve financial literacy among pupils aged 11 and over, when Lord Cameron was prime minister, and said the Bill would help in “consolidating that learning” by extending financial education to primaries and tertiary education settings such as colleges and universities.
“We’re sending our young people out into the world, putting them into the game of life, without even teaching them the rules first,” Mr Bedford said.
“In an age when many believe the responsibility for toothbrushing should be handed to teachers, we can’t leave our entire financial future to materialise like magic, before our economy decays even faster than those young teeth.”
The Bill will be listed for a debate on April 25.
