Student’s call for EMA grant to be restored

In a speech to the National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference in Harrogate, Joe Cotton urged ministers to reverse their decision to scrap the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA).

Joe, 15, who attends Calder High School in Calderdale, said the Government had a duty to ensure that all teenagers have the opportunity to stay in education after they turn 16.

Ten of the UK’s leading economists have urged the Government to reinstate the EMA and the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the cost of the grant is offset by its benefits, Joe told delegates. He said many of the hundreds of thousands of students who receive the EMA would be unable to attend college without it.

“Yet the Government is scrapping it, and setting up a replacement scheme which will cut the money available by £400m.

“Well, I don’t know how nifty (Education Secretary) Michael Gove thinks he can be with a loaf and some fishes, or even a bus pass and some textbooks, but he’d need nothing short of a miracle to replicate the benefits of EMA with that budget.”

“How is cancelling EMA safeguarding education for 16 to 18-year-olds? And how is trebling university fees ensuring access to higher education? It’s not.”