Financial literacy in the New Zealand curriculum
There’s hardly a parent we’ve spoken to who doesn’t want more financial literacy taught in schools. The ongoing refresh of the curriculum provides an opportunity to enable that. MoneyTime recently spoke with the Curriculum Team in the Ministry of Education who provided us with this feedback:
There is no intention to make financial literacy a stand-alone subject
They are not contemplating it be put it in a single subject e.g social sciences
Instead, it will continue to be referred to across the maths, social sciences and commerce learning areas
The curriculum is likely to be more prescriptive as to what is taught
It is not clear if will refer to the current Financial Literacy Progressions
The intention is to call it “financial education” instead of “financial literacy”
The focus will likely shift from economics to personal finance to make it more relevant to all students.
A “marketplace” is being considered for available resources that will be linked from the learning areas in the curriculum.
The Curriculum Team understand the significance of personal finance for young people and will be endeavoring to give it more prominence in the refreshed curriculum.
Let’s hope they do!
25/09/24 Update
MoneyTime’s CEO, Neil Edmond (forth from the left in the photo below), recently joined the leaders of various financial literacy programs to attend a roundtable meeting hosted by Andrew Bayley, the Minister of Commerce (on left).
The meeting was to discuss how financial literacy in schools can increase the financial capability of New Zealand’s youth.
Of particular interest was how financial literacy is going to be treated in the current curriculum refresh. A financial math strand has been added to the Math curriculum draft, however the most likely learning area to incorporate personal finance is Social Studies. More will be revealed next year once the literacy and numeracy refreshes have been implemented.
Participants in the financial literacy roundtable held in Auckland September 2024
Refer to our next blog for more thoughts on Where Financial Literacy Should Sit In The New Zealand Curriculum