Burnaby students want to learn more about financial literacy at school 

According to a recent survey, students at a high school in Burnaby think they should have more of a say in what they are taught. They want to be learning about more practical topics like business and money management. Their perspectives speak to the fact that current curriculum is failing to prepare students for life after graduation. 

94% percent of survey participants said they would like to have a say in what they learn. 

When asked about what they would prefer to be taught, 29% identified taxes as something they want to be further informed about. Many respondents recommended topics such as business, money management, budgeting, and other practical life skills.  

Students also mentioned how having classes which focused on more specific art programs like music composition would help them develop their skills more effectively, as opposed to general arts topics like band and choir. 

94% students agreed that they would enjoy going to school more if they had greater choice in what they study.  

Some students questioned the long-term relevance of certain mandatory courses. “I think some subjects that are taught in this school are kind of useless. I don’t really think Social Studies should be required all the way until grade 12. The reason we learn about history is so that we don’t repeat it, but realistically, who’s going to repeat the holocaust,” one student told 8forty.”It’s good to learn about these subjects but I’m not going to ever use this information, it’s just not practical.”  

The preference for more practical topics was shared by most survey respondents. When asked if they would like to learn about more practical topics, 92% said yes.  

Financial literacy and taxes emerged as a popular topic among students. While 80% said they wanted to learn more about taxes, 87% of students showed interest in learning how to manage their finances.  

Students also felt high school did not properly prepare them for post-secondary life. 87% of students said they would like to be taught more about college preparation and life after high school.  

When the students were asked specifically about what they would want in their curriculum, there was an abundance of answers talking about preparing for the future, job markets and real-life subjects. Students giving answers such as “how to run a business,” “how to prepare for real life situations,” and topics related to the job market and applications. With some high schoolers even mentioning public speaking, debate and negotiation.”  

The general theme that emerges is that students feel they should be taught about how to prepare for their future.  

Still, some respondents expressed interest in learning subjects that are less directly tied to career preparations 

Many students want to learn about more specialized art topics such as video editing, design, health and wellbeing, fashion and additional language options. “I think students should be able to access additional info in what they want to pursue in school,” one student said. “An example would be a student trying to be a pianist, I believe they should be able to access additional classes to improve.” 

One Burnaby Social Studies teacher told 8forty that teachers may not be prepared to teach financial literacy in a detailed way. “Most teachers I think just don’t have the experience, so they might not know how to share those details” he said.  

“I think it’s too bad,” the teacher told 8forty. “I think school should be more of a collaborative thing between students and teachers, unfortunately it doesn’t work like that.” 

Photo by Olia Danilovich