Page 398 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 10 February 2021
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Principals’ Association to develop a plan to deliver quality financial literacy education in public schools; and
(b) transition away from banks and financial institutions delivering school banking programs in ACT Government schools by the end of the 2020-2021 financial year.
Corporations have no place in our public education system. We need a plan to get the big banks out of our schools and to focus on setting up our younger generations for economic and financial security. We know that educating our children on financial literacy is important for their long-term social and economic stability and equality. That is why I am calling on the government to divest our schools from grubby and, ironically, educationally worthless school-based commercial banking programs.
All children should get high-quality independent financial literacy education from their school, from their parents and from their communities. They are already doing so, without the need for corporate involvement in our public schools. The federal government’s MoneySmart program and the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority have both developed financial education resources for teachers to implement the Australian curriculum that are far more comprehensive and up-to-date than the outdated programs run by banking and financial institutions.
We know that Canberra students are hungry for practical life skills, including money management. Our schools are already meeting these needs, with plans to increase the emphasis on and attention to financial skills and an understanding of how money works. This motion calls on the ACT government to continue to work closely with teachers, the Australian Education Union, the parents and citizens association and the ACT Principals Association to develop and continually approve appropriate contemporary financial education in line with the Australian curriculum.
Financial literacy is best taught by teachers who have an active interest in the education of our students. Teachers, not banks, are best placed to actively work with students to teach them how to identify scams and avoid loan shark companies. We need students to learn how to critically engage with the significant risks of “buy now, pay later” schemes like Afterpay and to learn about the pitfalls of car loans. Financial institutions that run and participate in these schemes cannot be trusted to be the ones educating students on these important issues.
In December last year, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission released their much-anticipated report into school banking programs. Through their two-year review, ASIC worked with schools, financial counselling organisations, governments, parents and the big banks to examine the impact of these marketing programs on our students.
The resulting report was damning. Firstly, ASIC found that school banking programs are used as key strategic tools by banks and financial institutions to market their products to young children. To quote ASIC:
Providers do not effectively disclose that school banking programs are linked to a broader customer acquisition strategy. In the absence of this information,
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