MP Stephen Jones with Port Kembla Public School students Georgia Cross and Gianni Princic. Picture: ROBERT PEET
Kindergarten seems a little early to start weighing up your long-term investment options, but from next year that's exactly what students at Port Kembla Public School will do.
Their school is one of 90 throughout Australia chosen to pilot MoneySmart, a new federal government teaching program that will form part of the new national curriculum when it is introduced in 2014.
Students from kindergarten to year 6 will learn about spending, saving, investing and donating to charity as part of their normal English and maths lessons.
Principal Kevin Tucker said teaching his students good financial skills was vital, especially as money became increasingly electronic.
"If you ask children where does money come from, they say 'a hole in the wall' and they also see their parents getting money from the supermarket along with the groceries," he said.
"Money is invisible to this generation, so these lessons will teach them about spending it carefully, budget planning, saving it for the short term, investing it in the long term and donating it by sponsoring a child or sponsoring an animal as well."
Visiting the school to launch the pilot, Throsby MP Stephen Jones said even the youngest children could benefit from financial lessons.
"People might say that this is a bit early to be teaching financial literacy, but using the example of my own kids, they grab my smartphone and think the applications they are downloading are free because it's all electronic," he said.
"So from the youngest age we want to teach kids the value of things."