14th October 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A report this week suggested that half of England’s further education colleges have seen a significant decline in students, a drop they say is due to the removal of the Education Maintenance allowance (EMA). Colleges say that financial burdens are the main reason for the drop in students, with the scrapping of EMA and the rising costs of public transport putting off students from poorer backgrounds.
The Association of Colleges have issued a statement saying that the poorest students with the lowest skills level are the ones most affected, and are now least likely to enrol in a college course. They raised concerns that there is no effective support system in place to replace EMA, and said that while losing EMA was not a great surprise, the fact that no alternative support system has been offered was not expected.
Most colleges are only able to give around 10% of the support to students that would have been available to them through the EMA scheme. The results of the report from colleges this week have been released at the same time as the latest youth unemployment figures, which stand at a 17 year high. Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden said that young people were being priced out of education and priced into unemployment as the government’s cuts take hold.