Now, a game for solving financial problems

The game will see youngsters help people to escape the problems of the credit crunch by investigating offers on the market week by week and could encourage young people to take an interest in the realities of finance.

From now on, dealing with financial problems will be child''s play, for a Scottish headmaster has created a new game called Debt Busters, which will help school children learn how to avoid the pitfalls of debt.

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Peter Hogan, the headmaster of private school Loretto in Musselburgh, had earlier created a stock market game called Student Investor. Launched 15 years ago, Student Investor introduced a generation of children to the stock market by allowing them to trade in real stocks and shares.

And now, because of the global economic slowdown, Hogan has devised Debt Busters, which deals with personal finance. The game chiefly caters to 13-year-old kids in solving real-life debt problems, to help them understand borrowing before they are faced with student loans, in-store credit cards and mortgage repayments. Debt Busters is to be launched at Loretto next term, and may be rolled out across Scottish schools from September.

The game will see youngsters help people to escape the problems of the credit crunch by investigating offers on the market week by week and could encourage young people to take an interest in the realities of finance. "The Student Investor helped thousands of children understand more about the City and I know pupils in my care switched university courses as a result of getting excited about money and investments,” the Scotsman quoted Hogan as saying.

"I hope Debt Busters will have the same impact. If we can persuade children to get involved with a bit of fun about debt, instead of it being a pretty miserable subject, they will engage with it," he added.