British students will study the global crisis of 2007-2008, market failures and tricky monetary policies like quantitative easing for the first time as part of their new economics A-level syllabus to be taught in schools and colleges from September.
The Pearson’s Edexcel exam board will pay special attention to covering the global economic crisis of 2007-2008 in its course. Students will be able to analyze factors that contributed to the crisis, including moral hazards, speculation and market bubbles.
"We know that students and teachers are eager to study the biggest financial crisis to take place in our lifetimes, and it is so important that tomorrow's business leaders understand and debate these key economic events," said Mark Anderson, Pearson's Edexcel exam board’s managing director.
“[The financial crisis – Ed.] is a sad but perfect case study that shows students the workings of the financial sector and how interrelated global markets are,” said Elisabeth Ring, subject specialists for economics at OCR, as quoted by The Telegraph.
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The new course will give pupils an opportunity to compare the crash and the measures taken by governments with the Great Depression of the 1930s.
They will also have discussions about the best policies to be applied in dealing with a financial crisis, including the measure of quantitative easing introduced by Bank of England to boost the amount of cash in the British financial system.
Pearson’s new syllabus will let students learn more about legendary economic theorists such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Hayek and Adam Smith, and new theories, as well as how psychological, emotional and social factors contribute to people's economic decisions.
The course envisages that students find out how the terms of "national wellbeing" and "national happiness" are used to measure the country’s economic growth.
They will also study emerging and developing economies and see how various economic theories can be applicable in different contexts. The new subject will as well touch upon the role of banking regulation and the methods world governments adopted to deal with crises.
British exams boards decided to redevelop their standards following an initiative by the Department for Education that asked them in 2014 “to develop an understanding of economic concepts and theories through a critical consideration of current economic issues, problems and institutions that affect everyday life.”