The deeply worrying state of the public finances has meant we have had to make some tough decisions. Having looked at all the facts it was decided at the time of the spending review that the EMA scheme had to be replaced. The Government believes it must target its resources to those most in need. Research commissioned by the last Government shows that almost 90 per cent of young people receiving the EMA said that they would still have participated in the courses they were doing if they had not received it Barriers to Participation in Education and Training , the Department for Education, published 24 June It also shows that finance only stops a minority four per cent from doing what they want to do after leaving school.
The same research also showed that the majority of young people 86 per cent do not face any barriers that stop them from doing what they want to do at the end of Year This money is properly targeted to those who most need it and is distributed by individual colleges and schools who are on the ground and know the circumstances of their students far better than the Government does.
We recognise that transport costs in some areas can be expensive. Local authorities have a statutory duty to make sure that no young person in their area is prevented from attending education post because of a lack of transport or support for it. If that duty is not being met then young people and families need to raise this with the local authority in the first instance. A new root and branch review of all school transport will start shortly and look at all these issues.
Check what you need to do. To help us improve GOV. It will take only 2 minutes to fill in. Cookies on GOV. UK We use some essential cookies to make this website work. Students protest over axed grants. Sixth formers fear end of grant. Grant axe 'to hit student travel'. Home - The Department for Education. Association of Colleges. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Andy Burnham: EMA is "about people making the best of themselves". Spending priority. Michael Gove: "The current arrangements for the Education Maintenance Allowance are poorly targeted". Published 18 January Published 19 January Published 28 March W hen the education secretary, Michael Gove, was interviewed by Education Guardian readers before the general election, he flatly denied that the education maintenance allowance EMA was for the chop, saying: "Ed Balls keeps saying that we are committed to scrapping the EMA.
I have never said this. We won't. So it was a surprise to many to hear, in last week's spending review, that the EMA was to be among the casualties. The allowance, which dates back to , was revised by the Labour government into a means-tested national scheme supporting young people from lower-income families in education. And while the government claims it is putting more money into education for school-aged children, to year-olds appear to have been left out in the cold.
As well as abolishing the EMA, the government plans to reduce the amount of funding per student for sixth-formers. John Stone, chief executive of the Learning and Skills Network, which now runs Reading College, says s, along with adult learners, have been the hardest hit by the spending review. The challenge for the sector will be finding ways to protect learners, and to make sure teaching and learning is not affected. So how do to year-olds, and those who represent them, feel about their prospects in the light of the spending review?
When David Cameron visited our college just before the election, he promised me personally, in front of a group of students, that he would not scrap the EMA. So it was a bit of a kick in the face to hear that's exactly what has happened. They are excluding a lot of young people from further education. In rural areas, like Cornwall, travel can be a real barrier to participation in education and training, but cuts to local authority funding may also threaten travel subsidies for FE students.
Lee Christian, 17, is studying for A-levels at Harlow College. I moved away from Cornwall to do my A-levels because I wanted to raise my aspirations. No one on my mum's side of the family has ever gone on to further education, and no one has a job at the moment. I didn't want to end up on benefits. I now live with my nan, but she is in her late sixties and her pension doesn't stretch too far, so the EMA is vital for me.
I didn't have access to a computer at home, so last year I saved it all up and bought a laptop for my college work. Ultimately, I want to join the police, but I wanted to get a degree first so I could progress more quickly.
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