A comprehensive revamp of the educational curriculum in England will soon make financial education mandatory for both primary and secondary school students. This significant change is aimed at empowering young minds with essential skills to thrive in today’s complex world.

Starting in September 2028, primary school students will engage in compulsory citizenship classes where they will learn the basics of money management, how to identify fake news, and gain an understanding of climate change. This initiative was announced by the Department for Education on Tuesday.

This curriculum overhaul marks the first significant revision in over ten years, reflecting the government’s commitment to ensuring students graduate with crucial life skills and a solid grounding in core subjects such as reading, science, and mathematics.

The changes are informed by the curriculum and assessment review, initiated by Sir Keir Starmer’s administration last year, with the aim of modernizing educational content.

According to Becky Francis, the chair of the independent review, financial literacy emerged as the top priority for parents and was consistently emphasized across all focus groups involving young people.

Becky Francis, chair of the independent review, said financial literacy was “the most highlighted area of importance by parents” and the “one topic that was consistently raised by every single focus group” with young people.

Young people’s thirst for knowledge about money was driven by the higher inflation of recent years and the increasing digitisation of the financial world, she added.

Financial literacy charity

Support the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign (FT FLIC)

Children are increasingly making digital financial transactions themselves, with 71 per cent of 7 to 17-year-olds making online purchases, the report found, most of whom did so without adult supervision.

Businesses, MPs and charities including the Financial Times’ Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign have repeatedly called for better financial education, which is currently only mandatory in local authority-run secondary schools.

The changes to financial education come as part of a series of reforms announced on Tuesday in response to the review, including a new statutory reading test for 12 to 13 years olds, an overhaul of school performance metrics and a “revitalised” national curriculum.

Ministers have already committed to some of the review’s recommendations in the post-16 education and skills white paper, published last month, including a new stepping stone qualification for maths and English GCSE resits and the introduction of vocational “V-levels”.

The first major overhaul of the curriculum since 2013 follows warnings that England’s “overloaded” curriculum and over-reliance on exams has affected students’ mental health and enjoyment of learning. 

The DfE has not announced changes to GCSE assessments but the Francis review recommended cutting the volume of exams taken by 16 year olds by at least 10 per cent.

Myles McGinley, managing director of the exam board Cambridge OCR, welcomed the reforms but warned that “even laser-focused change will cost schools and colleges time and resources that are in short supply. 

“With no slack in the system, schools will need support to properly implement changes. Otherwise this will be a wasted opportunity,” he added.

The Treasury is also launching a financial inclusion strategy that will expand a pilot between the charity Shelter and five high street banks to give homeless people the ability to open bank accounts without a fixed address, removing a major barrier to paid work.

Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays, Nationwide and Santander are joining an existing pilot with HSBC, which has already helped 7,000 people.

The Treasury will also announce a plan to work with credit rating firms to ensure that victims of domestic abuse will have unfair credit scores expunged from their records.

Lucy Rigby, economic secretary to the Treasury, said: “This plan is about opening doors — helping people experiencing homelessness into work, helping survivors of abuse rebuild their credit, and helping families save for a rainy day.”