Bursary fund will pay poor students to stay on

Education Secretary Michael Gove unveiled plans yesterday for a £180m fund which will be split into two sections – a guaranteed payment of £1,200-per-year for a small group of the “most vulnerable” teenagers, and money given to schools and colleges to hand out themselves.

It replaces the EMA, a weekly payment of between £10 and £30 given to the poorest teenagers living in households earning less than £30,800 a year, to help them stay in education.

At £180m, the new scheme is worth less than a third of the old EMA, which had annual funding totalling £560m.

Mr Gove told the Commons the new scheme is designed to help vulnerable 16-19-year-olds stay in education, with around 12,000 16-19-year-olds who are in care, who have just left care, or who are on income support, being given guaranteed yearly bursaries of £1,200.

Schools and colleges will be told that they can distribute the rest of the money to any student they feel faces “genuine financial barriers” to staying in education. The payments can be paid weekly, monthly or annually, and could be linked to attendance or behaviour.

Mr Gove said: “We are expanding apprenticeships, expanding technical academies, and we are proving targeted financial support for the most vulnerable 16 to 19-year-olds. £180m will be available for this bursary fund, enough to ensure that every child eligible for free school meals who chooses to stay on could be paid £800 per year.”

He said this would be an increase on what many students receive under the current system.

Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham said: “Young people are bearing the brunt of this shambolic Government.”

He added: “With youth unemployment at nearly one million, this Government should have kept their promise to retain EMA instead of risking a lost generation of young people.”

Ministers’ decision to scrap the EMA last year proved highly controversial, with demonstrators taking to the streets to voice their concern alongside those protesting against the university tuition fee increases.

Last year principals from six further education and sixth-form colleges in the region sent an open letter to the Yorkshire Post warning that axing EMA would force some poorer pupils to leave education once they finish school.

The letter signed by Askham Bryan principal Liz Philip, Craven College’s Alan Blackwell, Scarborough Sixth Form College’s Tom Potter, Selby College’s Allan Stewart, York College’s Alison Birkinshaw and Bonita Hodge, from the Yorkshire Coast College, also criticised the decision to remove the EMA for existing students resulting in them lose funding for their final year.

Yesterday Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “This announcement shows that Michael Gove has been unable to ignore the tens of thousands of people who campaigned against the Government’s decision to get rid of the EMA. However, he has gone nowhere near far enough.

“EMA helps to keep our young people in education. We know from students that it helps them to pay for essentials such as transport, books and lunch. Young people engaging in education is essential to social justice and to our economic future.”