Students and lecturers at more than 100 schools and colleges across the country will stage marches and sit-ins at lunchtime, protesting against plan to axe poor pupils’ EMA grants.
The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is a weekly grant of up to £30 given to 16-18-year-olds from the most disadvantaged homes to help them stay in education, by paying for their basic costs such as transport, food and books.
Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC) said that the overall spending cut involved could see support for the poorest young people shrinking from £574 million to possibly as little as £75 million, severely limiting the career prospects of teenagers from low income families.
EMA payments are received by 600,000 young people from lower income families in English sixth forms and colleges and in some areas of Birmingham, Leicester and the North West, up to four fifths of students are entitled to the grant.
While potesters all over the UK claim that receiving the support is often the decisive factor for poor teenagers in deciding whether to continue their studies, authorities are increasingly concerned about the present economic climate.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said that as 90% of the students currently in receipt of EMA would have stayed in education without it, the best solution is to ensure better value for money, targeting support to those young people who really need financial help to continue in education.
EMA is due to be scrapped in September 2011 and will be replaced by targeted support straight away.
The action comes just days after tens of thousands of demonstrators descended on Parliament to protest at the Government's plans to treble university tuition fees.
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