The Lack of Financial Education in Educational Systems

Can’t stress this enough.

If we fail to recognise this phenomenon, less informed generations will continue to succumb to a lack of financial education – period.

How come a fresh University graduate finds it hard to read an uncomplex financial statement, or simply doesn’t know what taxes he or she will pay in the upcoming months?

Possibli, kważi għoxrin sena ta’ skola u tgħalim mhumiex biżżejjed sabiex wieħed ikollu ħjiel aħjar ta’ flusu?

Let me quote a book I was reading recently on personal finance:

“One of the reasons the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class struggles in debt is that the subject of money is taught at home, not in school. Most of us learn about money from our parents. So, what can poor parents tell their child about money? They simply say, “Stay in school and study hard”.

The child may graduate with excellent grades, but with a poor person’s financial programming and mindset. Sadly, money is not taught in schools. Schools focus on scholastic and professional skills, but not on financial skills.

Schools focus only on teaching people to work for money, not how to harness money’s power. Schools were designed to produce good employees, instead of employers. A person can be highly educated, professionally successful, and financially illiterate.”

Obviously, this is a worldwide problem. Without entering into a capitalist vs socialist debate, I strongly believe that the school system is a capitalist tool to produce more workers, and not individuals who want to change things; individuals who are outside of the box-thinkers and are ready to start their entrepreneurial journey.

Yes, there has been an improvement in introducing critical thinking in schools as oppose to previous generations of academia, yet there is a lot to be done -especially on personal finance (which I believe is quasi-non existent).

We have to start teaching children from a young age to be more financially literate. This can be done gradually, for example:

1. At a young age (let’s say 5-10 years of age), start introducing the concept of money and how it works, the idea of saving instead of impulsive buying, and even the benefits of it.
2. At an older stage (11-16 years), I would gradually introduce kinds of investments one could opt for in their lives, reach out to stakeholders from the financial sector to give a first-hand experience to children, and explain important concepts (such as life insurances & fintech) so that at a young age, there already exists a foundation of knowledge which will help each individual to be more financially independent in the future.

Or this is not in the education department’s concern? Hell at least it is for all of us.

– Luke Fenech, 22.