Payments to keep teenagers in education to be extended
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Your support makes all the difference.Teenagers from low-income families could soon be paid £40 a week to continue their studies after the age of 16.
After being impressed with a three-year experiment to pay education maintenance allowances (EMAs) in 15 areas, ministers are preparing to extend the idea across England and Wales.
They believe that the initiative has boosted numbers of youngsters staying on at school and that it could lead to increased numbers of university applications. Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is expected to announce the £300m move, in next month's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).
EMAs are supported by Tony Blair and Education Secretary Estelle Morris. The idea has been championed by Labour since before it came to power in 1997.
The hand-outs will be means-tested, with the full £40 going to children of parents earning up to £13,000, tapering to £5 a week for parents with an annual income up to about £30,000. In the Government's pilot areas, the number of children staying on at school or going to further education colleges has increased by 5 per cent, with a large increase among children in deprived areas.
Several approaches have been adopted, including paying allowances directly to students or into accounts held in their name by their parents. Some councils have chosen to offer transport vouchers instead of money.
To get their allowances, students have to sign a learning agreement promising not only that they will attend college every day and do all their homework, but also that they will behave well in class.
A Department for Education and Skills spokesman said anecdotal evidence suggested that EMAs had succeeded so far and confirmed that ministers wanted them extended to more areas.
She said the department did not know whether a national roll-out of the scheme would be announced next month by Mr Brown, but added: "It depends how much money there is available."
Research suggests that children of working-class parents are often tempted to leave school at 16 so that they can start earning straightaway. The result is that Britain has one of the lowest levels of participation in post-16 education in the West.
Education and transport are likely to form the centre-piece of next month's CSR. In his Budget in April, Mr Brown promised to raise "significantly" the share of national income spent on education.
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