London, 6 November 2025: Financial education should be embedded within the maths curriculum, not left to Citizenship or PSHE, says Maike Currie, VP Personal Finance, PensionBee.
The Curriculum and Assessment Review (2025) published this week highlights the importance of preparing young people for the real world and the need to teach the “fundamentals of money” alongside core skills. Despite financial education being compulsory in Citizenship for 11-16-year-olds since 2014, and some limited financial education through the maths curriculum, only one in three pupils recall learning about money at school and even fewer found the lessons useful.
“When was the last time you used trigonometry to solve a real-life problem? Rarely will an adult ever apply the sine, cosine, or tangent ratios – yet everyone needs to navigate interest rates, credit and budgeting,” says Maike Currie, VP Personal Finance, PensionBee.
“We’re teaching children to calculate the circumference of a circle, but not how to calculate interest on a loan. Trigonometry may help you find the hypotenuse, but it won’t stop your money from losing its purchasing power in a high inflation environment. Maths lessons should teach the skills with real world-applications that shape lives – interest, inflation, debt and budgeting – not just equations most people never use again.”
The 2025 Review recommends that young people should acquire skills and knowledge for life and work, including financial education, as part of a modern, world-class curriculum. The government has confirmed that children will learn more about money fundamentals under the new reforms, with a final curriculum due in spring 2027 and roll-out in schools from September 2028.
“Money skills are life skills. By age seven, children are already forming their attitudes to money. This is a unique opportunity to embed financial literacy into the curriculum in a meaningful way,” Currie says. “Rather than treating it as an optional topic in Citizenship, it should be integrated into Maths where students can learn the mathematical foundations behind real-world finance.”
Currie argues that placing financial education in Maths would make the subject more relevant and engaging, while ensuring all students receive consistent, practical money lessons.
“When pupils learn about percentages and compound growth through real-world examples like savings and credit, they begin to see how numbers could impact their daily lives,” Currie adds. “This isn’t just about financial literacy, it’s about building financial confidence, which will in turn benefit the wider economy. ”
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) estimates that improving financial literacy could add £7 billion to the UK economy annually, creating more than 120,000 jobs.
“Citizenship plays an important civic role, but it can’t carry the responsibility for teaching financial numeracy,” Currie says. “We don’t need to cram more content into overstuffed timetables. But we do need to teach existing mathematical principles through a financial lens. When students learn percentages, show them how interest rates work and demonstrate how compounding can make investments grow or debt balloon. When they study graphs, show them how to track inflation or savings growth. When they calculate ratios, show them how to budget. It’s the same maths but it’s the maths that matters.”
