SIXTY per cent of today's adults believe there was something vital missing from their education - lessons in how to handle money.
Although people may appear confident about monetary issues, more than half admit they have difficulty understanding financial leaflets, while one in four people with pensions and endowment policies don't realise that their money is invested in the stock market.
It's little wonder then that parents want their own children to be better prepared for life in the big financial world than they themselves were when they left school or university.
Research for Raising Standards, a scheme funded by big names such as CIS, Prudential and Norwich Union, showed that an overwhelming 88 per cent of people believe money management should be taught in school now to improve standards of financial literacy in the future.
With personal debt at an all time high and many Britons struggling to save for their future, adults clearly see greater financial awareness as vital for children, says Martin Shaw, director of Raising Standards.
"Britons want children to be clued up and confident in using money," he said.
"Teaching money management in school would help to make tomorrow's consumers even better informed."
Money management lessons will be all the more necessary in the future, he says, as the Child Trust Fund scheme progresses, with thousands of children gaining access to substantial sums of money once they reach their 18th birthday.
Raising Standards' findings are closely paralleled by those from Insight Investment, the asset management arm of HBOS, who found that 87 per cent of adults want money lessons for their children.
The urgent need to improve standards of financial literacy and money management from an early age has never been more apparent, says Insight's David Norman.
"People understand the need for planning, but do not feel empowered to make choices soon enough. Teaching money management in schools would solve many of tomorrow's financial problems for today's children."
Personal finance is an option taught by an increasing number of schools as part of citizenship lessons, but is not compulsory. Last year, however, there was an important step forward when 48 students completed a unique A/S level equivalent in financial studies.
The Certificate in Financial Studies (CeFS) was introduced by the Institute of Financial Services in 2000 and Michael Kirkwood, the institute's deputy president, is hopeful that it will become embedded within the national curriculum, starting with a national roll-out this year.
And last week students from seven schools in Salford, Trafford, Rochdale and Bolton had the opportunity to demonstrate their own personal finance education projects at a seminar at Bolton's Reebok Stadium hosted by pfeg, the Personal Finance Education Group.
Almost 30 schools in the region have participated in Pfeg's £4m flagship project - Excellence and Access - aimed at raising the quality and quantity of personal finance lessons.
Manchester-born Wendy van den Hende, Pfeg's chief executive, says children are extremely dependent on their parents for information about money matters - but too often parents lack the necessary knowledge.
"Our mission is to ensure that when students leave school they are equipped with the knowledge, confidence and skills in financial matters to allow them to participate fully in society," she said. "Even if you come from an affluent background it doesn't necessarily mean you will be financially competent because many young people are shielded from the realities of finance by their parents.
"We believe you can't start early enough in financial education."