Education Maintenance Allowance

But don't you think it's wrong to effectively 'bribe' people into education? I don't receive the EMA and I've never missed a lesson, because I value my education for what it is, and I know it'll help me in later life. Sure, £30 or so would be nice, but it wouldn't change my view on education, it'd just give me some extra spending money. I think the government's scarce resources could be used in better ways.

I was in the testing area for this, I and although I benefited from it greatly, it shouldnt be used as a bribe to get the government their 50% in uni target.

Don't get me started on that target. What utter nonsence. Stretching resources, turning application procedures into lotteries. *sigh* If only I was PM!

Not when the benefits of education have such great externalities. The idea behind it all is that my education doesn't just benefit me, but it benefits you too. If the population doesn't have the skills and knowledge gained in FE, it's going to be you who loses out.

EMA payments are not that big in the scheme of things. It's important to recognise that the people gettin £30 pw are not your average Joe, they're people who quite seriously wouldn't be in FE without it.

As I'm sure amazingtrade would tell you if he were here, that figure is misleading.

But that's just it, I don't think that some of the people in receipt of it would not be in FE if they did not receive it. I appreciate there are some people who need it for the practicalities of food and travel, but I go to a poor state grammar school and all my books etc are provided for me. I pay for stationary and travel, and that average £5 a week tops. I think there are individuals exploiting the scheme, and remaining in FE purely because they think they can get easy money out of it for doing nothing.

As I'm sure amazingtrade would tell you if he were here, that figure is misleading.

Well I spend £5 on food and travel per day. £2.50 on travel, £2.50 on food. You may wish to debate whether £2.50 is excessive for a food budget, but bearing in mind if you want to go lower than that you're limited to "chips" and errr "chips." I don't think it's unreasonable for me to want a decent diet.

In what way?

No but you'd be eating whether you were in FE or not, so why should the gov pay for it just because you're in FE?

Because if I'm not in FE I can work fulltime. It's in society's interests that I don't go straight into a job, but get some further/higher education first. In every other developed country in the world, this is the standard. If we, as a country, want to enjoy our position as one of the most developed countries in the world, we have to ensure that our labour force doesn't become stagnant and unskilled for the modern economies of the world.

But, you could have a part time job. I have one, and can quite easily balance school work, part time work (18hrs a week = £90) and going out etc too.

I don't think this is possible for most though. In order to compete for the best universities, students are expected to be doing 4-5 Alevels, AEA exams, STEP exams, relevant work experience, these all take alot of time. I for one would have absolutely no chance of holding down a job whilst maintaining my grades. Whatever level the student is working at, if they're at full potential, they won't have time for a job. Full time students are called that for a reason. I think jobs should be avoided apart from in holidays. The government recognises the detrimental effect of trying to balance a job and full time study, as do the top universities.

I don't think it's had a detrimental effect on my studies. I feel I'm at my full potential, and wouldn't spend any more time studying, even if I had ample more feel time.

But how can you be at full potential when you could spend the time you spend working studying instead? Whether you wanted to or not, you could do.

But if you spend too much time working you burn out. You couldn't possibly spend all your free time working and be at your full potential, you'd go into overload.

I pretty much do for the few months around exam time. I wake up at 7, am working by 9, and don't usually stop properly until midnight. You're talking about working 18 hours per week. That's your entire weekend gone. That's alot of opportunity to progress with schoolwork out the window. I'm sure if the time I spent studying on weekends was gone, my grades would slip.

The time recommended by my college to spend on homework is 3 hours per night, and 9 hours per day on weekends around exam time. This would be totally impossible with your suggest