So it has a name - "financial literacy"...

Something I have rabbited on about from time to time is the importance of teaching kids the value of money, leading to the development of budgetting skills....

Here is how important it is!!

Enterprise New Zealand Trust wants to see financial literacy included in teachers' "achievement objectives" - bureaucratese for the things children must learn.

The trust's Lyn Morris said the inclusion of financial literacy as a "critical" competency in the new draft curriculum, released in July, was a step forward for financial literacy, which is currently taught in only a quarter of secondary schools.

Morris said that meant tens of thousands of kids would continue to leave school with little or no idea of how money, budgeting, debt, saving and investment worked.

The trust holds out little hope of an upgrade for financial literacy given there are so many competing interests, including environmentalists, and Maori and Asia 2000, wanting subjects like Chinese, the Treaty of Waitangi and green issues included in the curriculum.

Oh well, roll on retirement. PERHAPS this is where I can make a small difference.