EMAs - are they working?

Last year the Scottish Executive launched the Educational Maintenance Allowance or "EMA". This scheme pays up to £30 a week to pupils from low income families to encourage them to stay on at school. A recent report has had a mixed reaction.

The interim report from the Executive suggests that up to 5000 students have missed payments because they either failed to turn up at school or missed learning targets.

However, over 40,000 students are benefitting from the scheme with 78% receiving the maximum payment.

SPTC Development Manager, Judith Gillespie commented in "The Herald" on June 23rd that while there were problems with the scheme, the positives outweighed the negatives.
She said: "It does seem to encourage youngsters to stay on who would otherwise have left and we need to weigh that up when we are looking at whether it has been a success. For some, it is a cop-out becuase they simply stay on to get the money and clearly some people are not turning up to school even with the payments. However, if the benefits to the youngsters who are turning up outweigh the problems, then we have to say it is a scheme worth supporting."

For more information on this story go to:
www.theherald.co.uk

For more information on Educational Maintenance Allowances go to the Parentzone website at:
www.parentzonescotland.gov.uk