SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Financial Literacy Counts on Good Numeracy Skills

Financial literacy skills sadly lacking….

So says TD Chief Economist Craig Alexander.  He says that people have no idea how to budget (hmm—some government officials should take note!) and that Canadians could make better financial decisions if they were better informed.  

Garry Marr has a good column in today’s Financial Post reporting on the federal task force set up to examine the issue.

According to Alexander, the reason for this is because of poor fundamental numeracy and literacy skills among Canadians to begin with:

“‘I write a literacy report every year and have been doing this for the last three or four years,” Mr. Alexander was quoted as saying. “I’ll be honest. When I was asked to do the report, I couldn’t imagine Canada could have a literacy problem. We are a modern, knowledge-based economy with a well-developed primary, secondary school and university system.”

International studies have found that about five in 10 adults Canadians don’t have adequate literacy skills, the economist says. When it comes to numeracy skills, six out of 10 Canadians don’t make the grade. The federal government has set up a task force on financial literacy, to which Mr. Alexander has made a 14-page submission.

There’s a link between numeracy and financial literacy, he says, proposing to make financial literacy a part of the curriculum.  

School for Thought suggests he look at making sure kids have good literacy and numeracy skills in the first place, since they are essential for financial literacy.