Ontario launches plan to teach teens financial skills
Province introducing pilots to 28 high schools aimed at modernizing careers curriculum
Ontario is rolling out pilot projects at 28 high schools aimed at revamping the Grade 10 careers course and laying the groundwork for financial literacy to become part of the curriculum.
About 700 students will be involved in the pilots, running until June, and their feedback along with teacher input, will be instrumental in redesigning the new course, expected to be in place for the fall of 2018.
While financial skills are a centrepiece, students will also learn entrepreneurship and digital literacy in addition to career and life planning.
The plan, to be announced Thursday by Education Minister Mitzie Hunter, comes after repeated calls for mandatory money skills to be taught in high school, including a campaign last year by the Toronto Youth Cabinet which stressed that teens are sorely lacking knowledge about everything from credit cards to filing tax returns.
The pilots represent “the first step in modernizing our careers curriculum,” and will make it more relevant by linking students’ goals for post-secondary school and the workplace with money skills like budgeting, planning and saving that will help them get there, Hunter told the Star. They will cost the ministry $142,000. “We want to make financial literacy relatable to students, and to their experience,” Hunter says, noting she’s heard from many youth who wished they’d learned more practical information in the mandatory careers course, which is accompanied by a half-course in civics.
“This is a good first step,” says Prakash Amarasooriya, who led the Toronto Youth Cabinet initiative and petition pushing for financial literacy in high school.
“We want to make financial literacy relatable to students, and to their experience.” MITZIE HUNTER EDUCATION MINISTER
But he notes there’s still a lot of work to be done to ensure teens leave school with the basic money knowledge they need.
Amarasooriya, 24, says his own lack of money sense added a lot of stress to his teen years after both parents lost their jobs and, fearing for the future, he took on five part-time jobs. He currently works in a bank and meets young clients who don’t know the difference between a chequing account and a savings account.
Financial literacy should be part of an equitable education system, he says, because not all families have the wherewithal to teach it adequately to their children.
Both money skills and digital literacy are critical tools for high school kids and subjects they’re eager to learn about, says Kimia Kamarhie, who teaches careers at Thornhill Secondary School and is part of the pilots.
“Those two modules being tested right now by us are a great advantage because these are life skills students will carry forward even after high school,” says Kamarhie, who took two days of teacher training last month and has started to develop the lesson plans she will begin using in April.
Teachers working on the pilots, which include eight GTA schools, will get an additional two days training in May and are already comparing notes and sharing strategies through a virtual learning network.
The opportunity to provide real-life, relevant learning and boost financial litera- cy “can only produce good results,” says Thornhill Secondary principal David McAdam, adding that’s why the school applied to be part of the pilot.
He applauds the process for giving students input into designing the course and a voice in what material should be included and effective ways to learn it.
Toronto financial literacy expert Tricia Barry welcomed the move, saying it’s long overdue.
But she argues that mandated financial literacy lessons need to be introduced much earlier, by Grade 6, including incorporating the concepts into math class.
“Elementary students should not be left behind,” says Barry, executive director of Money School Canada, which runs workshops for children, youth and parents.
In 2011, the province announced that financial literacy would be embedded in subjects taught in grades 4 through 12 such as math, social studies and world studies.
But a study Barry co-authored and released last fall concluded the result has been “haphazard, inconsistent” learning for elementary kids, and a lack of content dealing with core money management concepts or vocabulary.
The gaps “are enormous” between what expert task forces have called for over the years, and what the ministry has put in place, Barry says.
Amarasooriya agrees that earlier is better but says getting financial literacy into Grade 10 careers was a logical fit and seemed to be “the path of least resistance” for making long-overdue changes quickly.