Budget 2010 blog: An education

Today's Budget may have seemed like a long, drawn-out, predictable litany of banker-bashing and pre-election tax breaks, but hidden deep among the tedium was at least one bold announcement - that financial capability is to be taught as part of maths GCSE.

By embedding financial capability into a subject like maths, compulsory for all 16 year-olds, the Government has taken a massive step towards addressing the issue of financial illiteracy. It is widely acknowledged that the biggest financial problem facing the country is a lack of understanding of personal finance. How can you solve the pensions crisis when most school leavers couldn't tell you what a pension is? Where is the incentive to save or take out a mortgage to buy a house when the percentages behind AMCs and interest rates mean nothing? There have been long running campaigns t...