Labor to Introduce Financial Literacy in the Australian Curriculum

Media Release: The Hon. Julia Gillard, MP, The Hon. Simon Crean, MP and The Hon. Chris Bowen, MP, 18 August 2010; Media Release: The Hon. Christopher Pyne, MP, 18 August 2010; The Australian, 18 August 2010; Daily Telegraph, 18 August 2010; Herald Sun, 18 August 2010

The Prime Minister, Ms Julia Gillard, has promised that the national mathematics curriculum will include a component that will require schools to teach children how to manage money.

She announced that the Australian Labor Party (ALP) would provide $10 million for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to develop practical training for 6000 Australian teachers and online education resources and teacher training modules that would assist students in years Prep to 10 to understand basic finance and potential consumer traps.

The financial literacy curriculum would include units on:

• understanding and comparing mobile phone plans
• learning how interest charges work, including evaluating interest-free offers
• comprehending household budgeting, including fixed and variable costs
• comparing and contrasting credit cards
• planning for married life and retirement.

Ms Gillard claimed that the curriculum would be designed to enable students to ‘make informed choices and responsible financial decisions as young adults’ and to ensure that there were national standards, focus and consistency in financial literacy. The financial literacy component of the mathematics curriculum would commence in 2011.

The Shadow Minister for Education, Mr Christopher Pyne, claimed that the Prime Minister’s announcement was simply a reinstatement of a program established by the previous Coalition Government, and which had been abolished by the ALP in 2008.

 

 

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