Government scheme aims to tackle post-16 dropout rate
Teenagers from poor backgrounds will be offered a cash allowance under new government plans to encourage them to stay in school.
The new scheme, launched yesterday, will provide teenagers from poor households with between £10 and £30 a week to stay on at school or college past their GCSEs.
The new Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is part of a government drive to improve the high drop-out rate of post-16-year-old pupils.
Education secretary Charles Clarke launched the scheme at Westminster College in London.
“The UK has one of the highest post-16 dropout rates in the western world,” he said. “This government is determined to smash school drop out rates at 16 and boost the aspiration and opportunities for those young people who have never viewed staying on at school or college as something for them.”
The grant will be made available to pupils who have a household income of £30,000 or less from September this year. More than half of all 16-year-olds will be entitled to a the EMA if they stay on in full-time education after September.
The allowance will be paid weekly into pupils’ bank accounts as long as they are studying an academic or vocational course that involves at least 12 hours of “guided learning” a week and they will be free to spend it as they please.
Following a two-year pilot in selected areas of England, the scheme is now being extended nationwide, at an annual cost of £500 million, ten per cent of the total annual education budget. The pilot found that attendance of 16-year-old boys rose by 6.9 per cent and 16-year-old girls by 5.9 per cent.
The attendance of recipients of EMAs will be monitored closely and those failing to turn up regularly to lessons could have their payments docked.
Private sector firm Capita, which also operates the London congestion charge and the Criminal Records Bureau, has been appointed to administer the scheme on the government’s behalf.
Shadow education secretary, Tim Yeo, attacked the scheme, claiming: “The government should be focusing on allowing schools and colleges to provide an engaging and relevant curriculum for their pupils, instead of bribing them to remain in education.”
Liberal Democrats’ shadow education secretary, Phil Willis, added: “Under this scheme young people are still better off going into low-paid work at £3 per hour than staying in the classroom, so 16-year-olds from poorer backgrounds are still missing out under Labour.”
The decision to extend the scheme has been welcomed by the National Association of School Masters Union of Women Teachers ( NASUWT).
