The Government has announced that as of January 2011 the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) will be scrapped. Below are some helpful hints on how to engage your students in this current debate.

The Government has announced that as of January 2011 the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) will be scrapped.  This prompted a wave of student protest to get the Government to re-think their decision.

On the day of the parliamentary vote to scrap EMA, James Mills, Head of the ‘Save EMA’ campaign was interviewed by BBC news:

Get the debate going in the classroom: Find out how many students in your school make use of EMAs. Do your students think the EMA genuinely helps them with their education? Could the money be better spent elsewhere? Consider the Government’s proposal to raise the school leaving age to 18, what impact will this have on young people from disadvantaged backgrounds? This Q&A on EMAs from the BBC website provides some useful facts and figures to enrich the debate.

We want to hear your students opinions, get them to write a short blog piece (or even film a video blog) on EMAs and send it to payingforit@citizenshipfoundation.org.uk. A selection of the best pieces will go up on our website