Education Minister Erica Stanford announced that from next year, financial education will be integrated as a fundamental part of the social sciences curriculum for students in Years 1 to 10, and it will become mandatory starting in 2027.
This means that children as young as five years old will soon begin learning about money management.
“We believe that this is extraordinarily important in a very complex world when it comes to finances, getting loans, not being scammed, working out discounts, how to go flatting, and how to work out a budget,” Stanford said.
The curriculum will be introduced gradually, starting with younger children learning fundamental concepts such as differentiating between needs and wants, understanding bank accounts, and the basics of earning, spending, and saving.
Older students will explore more advanced subjects such as budgeting, investing, interest, taxes, and insurance, aimed at developing “lifelong financial skills.”
“One of the pieces of feedback that often comes through is that some people end school without the basic financial literacy to make good financial decisions for them and their family, and that can result in people ending up in really difficult levels of debt,” Finance Minister Nicola Willis told the media.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis was with Minister Erica Stanford when Stanford revealed the said changes.
Furthermore, the rollout of the new curriculum will involve external partners working alongside the Retirement Commission, including banks and educational organisations.
Major financial institutions such as Westpac, ASB, Kiwibank, and BNZ, as well as groups like Sorted in Schools and Life Education, will also contribute to delivering financial education in schools.
Stanford clarified that these newly announced changes are in addition to the inclusion of financial mathematics in the updated maths curriculum, which will be introduced separately later this year.