A CLASS of 13-year-old boys is crowding around a computer, mesmerised by what’s on the screen. The boys are captivated and their excitement is tangible. But they are not playing Grand Theft Auto. These boys are looking at graphs of the FTSE 100 index.

The boys, pupils at Westbrook Hay School, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, are trading theoretical share portfolios as part of a competition devised by Peter Makower, the school’s head of mathematics. The aim of the Schools’ Stock Market Challenge is to make personal finance exciting. And it’s working. The boys trade their shares and track the markets with all the enthusiasm of football fans.

But this is a rare display of personal finance education in action, despite the growing financial pressures on a generation that will grow up to face university tuition fees, a looming pensions crisis and a tax system that grows ever more complicated. “I wish we had a Jamie Oliver of finance, who would talk about personal finance education in schools and make waves on the subject,” says Annabel Brodie Smith, of the Association of Investment Trust Companies (AITC).

The AITC is one of the industry supporters of the Personal Finance Education Group (PFEG), a charity that promotes the teaching of finance in schools and provides resources for teachers. Wendy van den Hende, chief executive of PFEG, says: “It is perfectly possible for someone to go through school without getting any personal finance education at all, which is horrendous when you think about the decisions they will have to make as school leavers.”

Personal finance education is, theoretically, on the national curriculum. It can form part of the citizenship course, and the personal, social and health education (PSHE) part of the syllabus. But as Ms van den Hende points out, within the broad guidelines for these subjects, personal finance competes against subjects such as sex, drugs and the environment for a place in the classroom.

The Department for Education and Skills says that it has set guidelines for how personal finance can be taught as part of the PSHE course. A spokeswoman says that the Government has also asked the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to consider “including financial capability more explicitly in the mathematics curriculum”.

However, industry supporters of financial education in schools say that the measures do not go far enough. While the Government wavers, the level of personal finance taught in schools depends entirely on individual schools and teachers’ commitment to the subject.

The idea of the Schools’ Stock Market Challenge was to make topics such as shares, mortgages and inflation interesting to 13-year-olds.

Children who take part are allowed to buy an imaginary portfolio of £1,000, consisting of five shares worth £200 each. Over three weeks from mid-June, children are able to monitor the performance of their shares by logging on to a site designed specifically for the competition by ADVFN.com, the stocks and shares website.

There is a daily prize for the child who makes the most profit and a prize at the end of the competition for the best-performing portfolio. That pupil’s school will also win £300, provided by SP Angel, the stockbroker. Last year six schools took part. This year the number has doubled.

Francesca de Franco, of ADVFN.com, says: “Last year one child received a 12 per cent return on his portfolio. The best-performing fund manager over the same period returned 1.1 per cent.”

Lessons in basic finance accompany the competition to improve children’s understanding. “Children have many questions about money that they do not usually have the chance to ask,” Mr Makower says.

The teacher addresses questions such as: “Why do we not just print more money to help poor people? What is a share and how does a shareholder make money?” There are similar initiatives all over the country, as individual schools and teachers attempt to equip their pupils with the financial skills required to survive adulthood. IFS ProShare, a financial education group; HSBC, the bank; and Prudential, the insurer, are among the more active organisations that run schemes to promote financial literacy. The Institute of Financial Services, which owns IFS ProShare, has designed diplomas in financial studies for AS-level students.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been charged with the responsibility for consumer education by the Government. But getting the subject into the classroom is only one small part of a greater project for the FSA.

Supporters of the idea of teaching personal finance in schools say that local initiatives need to be backed up by a more coherent national strategy from the Government. Ms Brodie Smith says: “We want a commitment of more time and more resources.”

PFEG receives £12,000 a year from the Government and £160,000 from the FSA. Compare this with the £115 million over three years that Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, has promised to boost foreign language teaching.

Children hopefully leave school literate, numerate and with a grounding in everything from science to history. Few enter the adult world with an idea of how pensions or mortgages work, or are taught to recognise the risks of debt. By the time many adults learn these lessons, it can be too late.

Additional reporting by Antonia Senior