Cuts threat to students

Published: 11 November, 2010

• AT this week’s full council meeting we heard about impressive improvements in GCSE and A-level results in Camden’s schools. 

At A-level, results are now higher than the national average. But this progress is under threat. At present 16-19 year-olds from less  well-off families are  able to benefit from the Education Maintenance Allowance, or EMA. 

According to parental income, students are eligible for sums of between £10 and £30 a week to enable them to stay on in the sixth form, or go to an FE college.  

This has been a lifeline for students and families in Camden, and has been overshadowed by the debate on university tuition fees. 

In Acland Burghley School (part of the La Swap consortium) in my ward, for example, half the sixth-formers receive the EMA, with the majority of them on the highest rate. 

Yet we learn from the Comprehensive Spending Review that the EMA will be axed and closed to new applicants from January. This is despite evidence of the effectiveness of the scheme in improving results, attendance and access to higher education. 

Local and national educators have warned of the devastating effects the removal of EMA would have on young people’s education and life chances. 

Labour MPs are endorsing the campaign to save the EMA, and we urge the government to reinstate this vital support for our 16 to 19-year-olds in schools and colleges. 

CLLR JENNY HEADLAM-WELLS
Labour, Kentish Town ward