Teenagers get £100m just to go to school
TEENAGERS were “bribed” with more than £100million last year just to attend classes and hand in homework on time, figures showed last night.
Youngsters earned up to £30 a week simply for staying at school under the controversial Education Maintenance Allowance scheme.
But last night critics said the special bonuses were unfair to middle class students – and claimed the money could be better spent.
The EMA scheme pays the grants to 16- to 18-year-olds from poorer households. Any cash the youngsters earn from part-time jobs does not count against their entitlement.
An official website tells the applicants they will only get paid “if you regularly attend and work hard on your course”.
Information obtained by the Liberal Democrats revealed that £100.5million was paid in bonuses during the 2007-8 academic year, up from £97million the previous year and £78.8million in 2005-06.
The bribing of children to turn up on time is highly questionable.
Lib Dem schools spokesman David Laws said: “Spending £100million on EMA bonuses will seem incredibly unfair to many people.
“It will seem totally unjust to students that some will be rewarded financially, not because of the high quality of their work but on how much their parents happen to earn.
“When we consider the other areas in which extra money could make a real difference, for example closing the funding gap between schools and colleges, these bonuses don’t look like a good use of public funds.’’
Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The effectiveness of bribing children to turn up to school on time is highly questionable.
“If these children are only in class to get the money, you’ve got to wonder whether they are better off there than in an apprenticeship or at work.’’
About 540,000 students in England are believed to get the EMA, with £395million paid in basic grants in the last academic year.
It also emerged that state schools in England are paying pupils up to £30,000-a-year in “prizes’’ to encourage good behaviour. and deter truancy.
A spokesman for the Children, Schools and Families Department said: ‘’The EMA payments provide a small fund for young people to pay for travel and books and acts as an incentive to those who may have otherwise have dropped out or gone into a dead-end job.”
