Duncan Cullimore, chief executive of the Economics, Business and Enterprise Association, the subject body, said: “It (economics) has become alive, when it has been relatively dull for years.”
Agnes Cserhati, of Esher College in Surrey, is one teacher who is bringing the downturn into the classroom. “It has been such an exciting time to teach business studies,” she said. “Compared to previous years, the children have got much more excited about the subject much earlier because they can read about it, apply it and see it everywhere around them.”
Ms Cserhati said the headlines had been inspiring her pupils, especially the intake which arrived in September when the credit crunch started to bite. She expects that more pupils will be inspired to opt for the subject when they make their choices in the spring.
One of the most popular activities was when pupils evaluated their parents’ decisions to buy shares. “It made them think about the economy from a different angle,” she said. They also role-played the HBOS and Lloyds TSB merger talks.
The downturn has also helped her to teach the enterprise part of the business studies A-level syllabus by looking at how firms are weathering the economic storm, she said.
