Money matters a lot in people’s lives. Everything, from food to shelter, and clothes to cars, costs money.
Math students may study numbers and equations, bookworms may study texts and literature, and history buffs may study dates and facts, yet they graduate with no knowledge of budgeting, balancing a checkbook, paying interest charges, or using a credit card responsibly. The lack of education regarding financial information is costly and tragic. Finances are what you must know to live. If schools are going to get their students ready for life, they should emphasize teaching finances.
It is vital to learn about money in real life. Whether you are an entrepreneur or an employee, you should know how to budget, plan, and save at a young age. Without this part of life, you might make a bad choice, such as overspending with cards or lacking funds in times of emergencies. These are bad choices that will cause you stress and trouble at a later date. Most young adults, for example, borrow money with no idea of how interest escalates with time and end up being unable to pay the interest. If schools taught students about money, adults might make wiser choices about their future.
Schools largely emphasize learning from textbooks rather than from practical skills. A four-year college student may sit in a classroom and memorize advanced math, yet have no idea how compound interest applies in the real world. These young college adults often graduate with no knowledge of how to handle money, how to pay taxes, or how to retire. An international organization called the OECD has a program called the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which helps policymakers identify trends, strengths, and weaknesses in education systems by administering tests in various subjects. According to the OECD, only a few students demonstrated quality financial literacy skills across the world. This indicates a significant issue: some schools teach their students how to take a test, yet they lack instruction in applying valuable money skills, leading to problems once the students become adults.
Not learning economics can be prohibitively costly. In countries like the United States of America (US), college debt has crossed 1.7 trillion dollars. Part of the reason for such a huge debt might be that young borrowers do not understand how to repay their debt. Many young people still depend financially on their parents until their early twenties because they cannot sustain themselves sufficiently. Stress as a result of flawed economic choices also affects mental health and relations within the family at a personal level and often leads to conflict or long-term complications. It has become evident that the lack of educating people about finances translates into costs socially and economically.
Financial education is quite valuable. It imparts beneficial skills for life. Education about budgeting helps students to differentiate needs from wants and to become responsible and disciplined. Education about savings and investment reveals the power of multiplying one’s money with proper usage. Education about taxes and credits enables people from an early age to steer clear of common pitfalls that many adults face. Well-educated students can select risks intelligently and remain immune to scams. In this day and age of the Internet, having financial literacy is not only a matter of budgeting and saving money, but also a matter of financial survival when it comes to being aware of scams. At a greater level, financial education fosters independence. Rather than depending upon their parents completely while making all money-related decisions, students can make intelligent choices independently. Independence fosters confidence and maturity, which are valuable traits in life.
Doing well with finances benefits nations and their economies. If individuals are wise with money, they are likely to invest in companies, generate jobs, and cause the nation to expand. Assisting citizens from going into too much debt and poverty also benefits the government. Everyone needs to learn about money, not only for their individual good, but also for the good of the nation. Having sound knowledge of finances builds individuals up and benefits the economy with a solid foundation.
Some nations are good role models in marrying finance with education. In the US, some state governments mandate a course in financial literacy, and research reveals that the students in those states are more likely to save and less likely to resort to high-interest loans. Singapore has developed initiatives such as “MoneySense for Your Child,” where learning of personal finance takes place through games and simulated real-world exercises. Personal finance as a subject finds a place in the national curriculum of the United Kingdom and holds as much importance as mathematics and languages. These are good indicators that, with sufficient attention, a program of financial education can succeed and yield results.
When implementing a system to teach finances to students, it is important to separate the curriculum into parts. First, elementary schools can teach basic ideas like income, expenses, and the importance of saving. Older students can learn about banking, credit cards, and taxes. At a more advanced level, students can study investments, insurance, starting a business, and planning for retirement. Hands-on activities, like making a personal budget or tracking spending for a month, can help students use what they learn in real life. By taking one step at a time, financial study can become as clear and easy to understand as subjects like math or science.
Some individuals state that business learning comes too late or that parents should instruct their children. Neither of those statements is true. First, parents also lack knowledge of finances and cannot instruct their children. Second, just as schools educate students from elementary-level arithmetic through college-level calculus, they can educate starting from the elementary level of business and rudimentary knowledge of finances. Others state there are already too many subjects. Nevertheless, one can incorporate business learning as a module or course within the current schedule of classes. Since knowledge of finances applies to one’s own life, it should become part of the curriculum regardless of a crowded schedule.
Financial education should be simple to comprehend. A world of schools that teach finance is a world of students who are confident and manage their own finances. It is a world of young adults with minimal debt, families with less anxiety about finances, and societies with intelligent individuals making good financial decisions. Individuals familiar with finances will build nations with stable economies that will less frequently endure poor choices.
Schools should teach children about life and not about exams. If a child can answer a complicated question correctly in math but has no idea about money, then they are not equipped with the skills required to face the real world. Money trains young people, prevents problems from occurring, and makes them independent. It empowers people by making them ready and capable of facing real-world scenarios. If we teach children about money at school, we endow them with the knowledge and skills they need to make it through life and succeed.
The time has come to grant priority treatment to economic education. Financial literacy is as central to cognitive learning as are language and mathematics. If schools are truly interested in educating children to take charge of their own lives and make a difference across society as a whole, then their course of study must include something as fundamental as education on finances. With this, the citizens of tomorrow will be empowered to build healthier and more resilient societies in the future.
By: Yeeun Park
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