He accused the Tory party and minister of a ‘political failing’
Martin Lewis called out the minister for schools to his face during an appearance in front of MPs.
The Money Saving Expert was speaking to MPs on the Commons Education Committee on Tuesday when he criticised ministers for failing to fund resources for personal finance lessons in schools.
Back in 2021, Lewis provided 350,000 copies and free online downloads for schools of financial textbook Your Money Matters.
The textbook teaches secondary school pupils to save, budget, or borrow money, along with providing lessons about student finance, pensions, investments, benefits, gambling, debt, insurance, security and fraud.
He highlighted to the committee that he personally funded the curriculum-mapped financial education textbook because he was told by Tory schools minister Damian Hinds that it had to be “funded by an individual.”
Lewis told the committee: “And as the minister is in the room, I will go back. I funded this textbook because the state wouldn’t, and told me it had to be funded by an individual.
“That is a political failing.”
As the minister sat in the room shaking his head in disagreement, Lewis continued: “I could have put boas into this textbook. We need proper textbooks, digital resources.
“We need teachers to be trained and we need ongoing teacher training. The impact on our economy, the impact on mental health, the impact on capability for young people, the impact on the employability of young people would be manifest.”
He added: “I’m not the Government. I’m a private individual. I actually have a substantial political objection that a private individual should be asked to pay for a textbook to go into schools.
“I don’t understand why I was asked to pay for it. On a practical basis I was told quite succinctly it was not going to happen unless I funded it so I funded it over my own objections.”
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