A London Council with England’s highest levels of child poverty has launched a new scheme to fill the gap left by the government’s scrapping of the national Educational Maintenance Scheme (EMA) today (01.11.11).
The Tower Hamlets Mayor’s Education Award will provide 16 to 19 year olds with the opportunity to continue their education by helping to alleviate the financial pressures that young people face. This is against a national backdrop of a decline in college enrolment with the loss of the EMA cited as the biggest single reason for the fall in numbers.
Mayor Lutfur Rahman, Tower Hamlets Council, said: ‘EMA enabled young people from low income families to stay on in education and training. It allowed them to raise their hopes and aspirations. Government cuts to EMA were particularly damaging because, for many of our young people, it dampened their dreams of a better future.
“The Mayor’s Education Award is designed to keep those dreams alive; it gives students who might otherwise have been forced to abandon their studies, a second chance. It is a demonstration of my commitment to ensure that poverty will not hold back our young people’s ambitions.’
EMA has played an important role in keeping young people in school beyond GCSEs. In Tower Hamlets 76 per cent of young people received the grant, and Mayor Rahman, wants to see this continue to ensure that all of the borough’s young people have an equal opportunity to access education and achieve success.
The new MEA will augment the 16 – 19 bursary, the government’s scaled back EMA replacement, to the level of the average amount received by learners under EMA. Paid in two £200 instalments, the grants will only be available to Tower Hamlets residents and will be dependant on educational attendances and improvements.
Tower Hamlets young people are already achieving great success, with the number of students achieving at least 5 A* – C GCSEs has increased from 4 per cent in 2002 to 79.8 per cent in 2010, making it the third most improved local authority in the country for GCSE attainment.
Tony Dolphin, Chief Economist at the IPPR said, “I think this is a wonderful initiative and I am delighted that Tower Hamlets has found the money to finance it. I hope that others will follow your lead and that young people from lower income families will once again be encouraged and enabled to stay in education beyond GCSEs.”
Journalist Polly Toynbee, said: “The abolition of EMA struck a cruel blow at the most vulnerable and most ambitious of students, struggling against the odds to get a good education. It would be hard to design a policy that was better designed to do the opposite of all the things David Cameron promised to do before the election – promote aspiration, education and equality of opportunity. It is brilliant that Tower Hamlets, with its excellent education record, has managed to remedy this disaster and restore it for the students who need it most.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
EMA Background:
Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was introduced in September 2004, to increase the number of young people from low-income families staying on at school.
The allowance was designed to mitigate the costs of staying on at school and to compensate for earnings forgone by not entering work at 16.
In the October 2010 Spending Review the coalition government announced it was scrapping the EMA.
Following a campaign by the media, the public and a host of education and child welfare organisations, the coalition announced it was going to provide a 16 – 19 bursary. However the money available nationally has been reduced from £560m to £180m and the eligibility criteria has been significantly narrowed.
The Tower Hamlets Story:
Tower Hamlets has 53% of children living in poverty, the highest rate of child poverty in England . The borough has the highest proportion of children eligible for free school meals in England , at 56.5%. There is evidence of some families’ incomes being below £10,000 a year. Tower Hamlets is an extremely diverse borough, with the highest proportion of children whose first language isn’t English – 70.4% in secondary schools – and over 140 languages spoken.
The percentage of local young people achieving at least 5 A* – C GCSEs has increased from 44% in 2002 to 79.8% in 2010, ranking the borough at 38th nationally. Compared to 2010’s GCSE figures, Tower Hamlets is the third most improved local authority in the country. This year Tower Hamlets had the fifth highest percentage of 5 A*-C GCSEs, including English and Maths, in inner London , behind only Westminster , Kensington and Chelsea , Hammersmith and Fulham, and Wandsworth.
– Paid in two instalments in January and July.
– Dependant on attendance and improvement.
– For children from low income families, who would have been eligible for £30 a week provision under EMA.
– For residents of Tower Hamlets.
Around 76% of local children were on EMA (NB data not collected by YPLA on borough basis). Before EMA, many young people were leaving school, often to work to help support the family income. EMA helped to ensure that young people didn’t have to rely on stretched family budgets and could access books, equipment and educational trips.
The Mayor of Tower Hamlets’ Solution:
The Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, is committed to keeping this upward momentum and to ensuring that a similarly large increase is seen in our A-Level results.
The Mayor decided to make provision for young people a priority and has allocated Council reserves to enable the project to be funded. The Mayor is also looking to secure ongoing funding for this from the private sector.
Details of The Mayor’s Education Award:
– Designed to augment the 16 – 19 bursary to the level of the average amount received by learners under EMA.
– £400 per year
– Paid in two instalments in January and July.
– Dependant on attendance and improvement.
– For children from low income families, who would have been eligible for £30 a week provision under EMA.
– For residents of Tower Hamlets.
For more information please contact:
Mayor Lutfur Rahman 