EDUCATIONAL MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE

I have been interested in the recent debate on the Educational Maintenance Allowance. It is designed so people from poorer backgrounds can get help with funding for books, travel etc. I have witnessed firsthand how this has helped students from less privileged backgrounds get an education. From this I will make two observations: a) a number of these had jobs as well and could not afford an education on that money alone; b) every day they signed a form to say they had attended classes. They thus got the money for the classes they attended. The EMA now has been scrapped by the Lib-Dem/Tory government and replaced with a new ‘targeted’ scheme. EMA cost £500 million, while the new scheme costs £180 million. Because people don’t fall into certain categories they will lose out. I once attended Epping Forest College and know how students from poorer backgrounds benefited from the EMA, while they will not under the new scheme. Caroline Lucas and the Green Party opposed the scrapping the EMA, as we saw the value. We see how it helps people who might not get a good education otherwise and may not be able to escape poverty. Both the Tories and Lib-Dems promised to protect the EMA and they have broken promises and betrayed a whole generation of school children.