What They Don"t Want to Teach You in School
It's not the first time people of my age group have commented about what is taught in schools these days.
By the looks of a recent announcement, it looks like learning money management in Northern Ireland schools is being dropped.
"A GCSE in financial services is set to be dropped from schools in Northern Ireland, due to low uptake and "overlap" with other exams.
" Source: BBC website Wed 29th Oct 2008.
It does beg the question will our young people leaving school at 16, 18 or 21 ever get to grips with understanding the fundamentals of how to manage money? Sadly, I fear not.
This decision to drop financial services from the Northern Ireland schools curriculum is, I suggest likened to stopping spelling lessons, as MS Word has spell check, or even abandoning cooking lessons, as there are plenty of fast food outlets around.
The frightening thing about the Northern Ireland Education Ministers decision to drop the GCSE in financial services is that it is based on a low take up of the subject.
The chair of a Northern Ireland Board of Local Governors said, quite rightly, the decision was disappointing.
This decision is not the responsibility of the Education Minister; if there is no demand for a subject, it is bad stewardship of teaching resources to fund it.
Neither is it the responsibility of the students, if there is no awareness of the importance of money management.
The sober truth is it's the responsibility of the parents.
No matter how you slice it, if young people are not taught the value of a penny or a pound and from this derives a disregard for the value of anything.
Being proficient at mathematics or economics at school or college, does mean proficiency with money in life.
Most students are broke for a good many years after college, paying of their student loans.
Many people are living weekly wage to weekly wage.
There is even a loan firm called Payday loans to help the weekly paid bridge the gap from being broke until payday.
The frightening thing is this.
In 10 or 20 years time, our teenage students will be running both government departments and commercial organisations; one wonders what sort of money management skills they will have acquired at school or college, and how then apply these to their jobs.
It doesn't take much to find out how successful today's school leavers are at dealing with money.
Very few young people can accurately add up a simple list of numbers, hence most youngsters working in retail or fast food will have the change calculated for them from the till.
Ultimately, I suggest it is the ability to understand money and how money works that will determine anyone's success in life, rather than success being measured in the achievement of academic qualifications.
As we journey through this current recession, (I say current because it will only be a matter of time before we have another one) some of us who experienced previous recessions in the 1980's and 1990's may reflect that we have been here before: if we don't ensure our young people get a solid grounding in money management and more importantly, how the world and money works, we could be here again.
By the looks of a recent announcement, it looks like learning money management in Northern Ireland schools is being dropped.
"A GCSE in financial services is set to be dropped from schools in Northern Ireland, due to low uptake and "overlap" with other exams.
" Source: BBC website Wed 29th Oct 2008.
It does beg the question will our young people leaving school at 16, 18 or 21 ever get to grips with understanding the fundamentals of how to manage money? Sadly, I fear not.
This decision to drop financial services from the Northern Ireland schools curriculum is, I suggest likened to stopping spelling lessons, as MS Word has spell check, or even abandoning cooking lessons, as there are plenty of fast food outlets around.
The frightening thing about the Northern Ireland Education Ministers decision to drop the GCSE in financial services is that it is based on a low take up of the subject.
The chair of a Northern Ireland Board of Local Governors said, quite rightly, the decision was disappointing.
This decision is not the responsibility of the Education Minister; if there is no demand for a subject, it is bad stewardship of teaching resources to fund it.
Neither is it the responsibility of the students, if there is no awareness of the importance of money management.
The sober truth is it's the responsibility of the parents.
No matter how you slice it, if young people are not taught the value of a penny or a pound and from this derives a disregard for the value of anything.
Being proficient at mathematics or economics at school or college, does mean proficiency with money in life.
Most students are broke for a good many years after college, paying of their student loans.
Many people are living weekly wage to weekly wage.
There is even a loan firm called Payday loans to help the weekly paid bridge the gap from being broke until payday.
The frightening thing is this.
In 10 or 20 years time, our teenage students will be running both government departments and commercial organisations; one wonders what sort of money management skills they will have acquired at school or college, and how then apply these to their jobs.
It doesn't take much to find out how successful today's school leavers are at dealing with money.
Very few young people can accurately add up a simple list of numbers, hence most youngsters working in retail or fast food will have the change calculated for them from the till.
Ultimately, I suggest it is the ability to understand money and how money works that will determine anyone's success in life, rather than success being measured in the achievement of academic qualifications.
As we journey through this current recession, (I say current because it will only be a matter of time before we have another one) some of us who experienced previous recessions in the 1980's and 1990's may reflect that we have been here before: if we don't ensure our young people get a solid grounding in money management and more importantly, how the world and money works, we could be here again.