Abstract
Personal financial literacy (PFL) is an imperative life skill that all 21st-century students should have. Research shows that the levels of financial literacy in both developing and developed countries are very low across people of all ages. This deplorable state of affairs has negative implications on the well-being of the populace, as evidenced by increased indebtedness, lower saving, poor planning for retirement, and the making of many poor personal financial decisions. Recognizing the potential benefits of financial literacy at both individual and national levels, many countries have started to offer financial education in their schools. This article analyzed the business subjects’ curriculum at secondary school level in Botswana and literature published on the subject of PFL, and found that there exists a gap in this area and a need to offer PFL to all learners in the school system. Despite the need for such a move, Botswana does not have a deliberate program in its curriculum that specifically addresses this problem. This article discusses the benefits of personal financial education, the inadequacy of current business subjects to meet this need, and concludes by recommending a mandatory PFL subject in the Botswana secondary school curriculum.
Highlights
Youths at secondary school level are faced with a future that involves lots of financial decisions, especially in their postschool lives
Personal financial literacy (PFL) for school going children has become an important intervention against issues pertaining to saving, investing, and spending habits of teenagers and how this will influence their future financial behavior
In South Africa, PFL is located within the economic and management sciences subject where 40% of the content is financial literacy, 30% is the study of the economy, and 30% is focused on entrepreneurship (Republic of South Africa, 2011)
Summary
Youths at secondary school level are faced with a future that involves lots of financial decisions, especially in their postschool lives. PFL avails every individual the opportunity to manage and control their own personal finances irrespective of their position, career, and status in society Depriving students these skills during their secondary school days may result in consumers who fall prey to predatory marketing gimmicks of retailers and financial institutions. In the United States, the National Standards for Business Educators (2013) and the Jump$tart (2014) coalition include standards for PFL in broad content areas such as personal decision making, earning a living, managing finances and budgeting, saving and investing, using debit and credit cards, and risk management. A later study by Peng, Bartholomae, Fox, and Cravers (2007) that examined the impact of financial literacy at high school level and college education somewhat corroborated these findings They found that earlier experience with personal finance correlated with savings rates later on in life. This is perhaps important for Botswana where household savings are low
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