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Personal Growth Lui Ho Ming, Alvis 6E (2016-2017)

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to an article titled ‘Money Management
Skills ─ Key to success’ published on 6th October, 2016 in the SCMP. As
a parent, I do think that there is an urgent need to incorporate financial
education into the junior secondary curriculum in a bid to improve the
overall financial literacy of the younger generation.

First and foremost, with the use of credit cards being prevalent, it is of
paramount importance for schools to inoculate correct concepts of money
into students, providing them with the ability to exert greater self-control
over the use of money. In this materialistic society, with the lack of financial
education and knowledge, students are highly susceptible to advertisements
and hence succumb to the temptation of material comforts easily. However,
when financial education becomes a mandatory component of the school
curriculum, students are equipped with better money management skills
and most vitally, the capability to differentiate wants and needs. What’s
more, if students are exposed to financial education as early as in junior
forms, the correct concepts of money will be deeply ingrained in their
minds and they should tend to be more cautious about striking a balance
between expenditure and income. In consequence, financial education plays
an indispensable role in instilling proper concepts of money into students
and should be advocated.

Apart from that, financial education offers rudimentary knowledge
about investment such as stock markets and bonds to students. Despite
their young age, being able to understand the way the economic system

88 With Pride, We Stride