Mark Garnier MP today welcomed the latest version of the new National Curriculum for England which places more emphasis on teaching students about money.
The new curriculum will be taught from September 2014 and will see financial education becoming a statutory part of the curriculum for the first time.
The news has been welcomed by the APPG for Financial Education, vice chaired by Mark Garnier, together with pfeg (Personal Financial Education Group), who have been working together to lobby the Department for Education on the financial education content in both mathematics and Citizenship education.
Mark Garnier MP commented: "We have been campaigning for compulsory financial education for years, and I am delighted to see that our effort is paying off. Financial literacy will be one of the greatest engines of social mobility for the future. For too long, we have been denying people the basic financial skills to make the best of their opportunities.
"Importantly, I am pleased to see that the Department for Education has listened to pfeg's recommendations, and included 'risk management' and 'income and expenditure, credit and debt, insurance, savings, pensions' topics to the curriculum.
"I believe that the introduction of financial education in schools will be the major engine for social mobility in the 21st century, tackling the existing financial illiteracy and the epidemic of mis-selling of financial products."
Mark Garnier has also raised the issue of financial education as a member of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, securing a PCBS recommendation that it should be taught in schools.