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NEWS • VIEWS • INFORMATION • ADVICE


Students won’t be fooled

The announcement of a £180 million bursary scheme for the poorest students is a desperate attempt by the Coalition Government to put a positive gloss on deep spending cuts, the NASUWT believes.

Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove is planning to introduce the bursary scheme in England to replace the scrapped Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), which provided financial support to help low-income students stay in further education.

The NASUWT has criticised the move, which masks a £390 million cut to support for the poorest young people.

Mr Gove has announced that students who started courses in 2009/10 will continue to receive the same EMA payments until the end of the 2011/12 academic year.

However, pupils from the lowest income brackets who started courses in September 2010 will see their weekly payments slashed from £30 to £20 until the end of the next academic year and those currently entitled to £20 and £10 per week will receive nothing.

From this September, only 12,000 new students who are either disabled, in care or from families on income support will be guaranteed funding. Others will be forced to apply to a discretionary fund managed by individual colleges.

In comparison, last year over 600,000 students received the EMA grant, with 80% (those whose household income is less than £20,800) receiving the full £30 weekly allowance.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:

"The Coalition Government has mounted an unprecedented and unjustified ideological assault on young people during its first year in office through cuts to EMA, tuition fees and education cuts.

“For all his talk of targeted support, the truth is that these changes mask deep cuts in the support being offered to poorer students and will leave thousands of young people priced out of education.

"Only by reinstating fully the EMA programme can the Secretary of State begin to restore any credibility with today's students, particularly those from less advantaged backgrounds."

The EMA schemes in Scotland and Wales are continuing. A review is underway in Northern Ireland.


Technical college numbers to double

As thousands of schools and colleges face massive budget cuts, the Coalition plans that the number of university technical colleges (UTCs) will double.

UTCs will provide vocational training for 11 to 19-year-olds and will be supported by private sponsors, in a similar way to academy schools.

The NASUWT is concerned that UTCs will divert money away from existing schools and colleges, reintroduce a selective model of education and create a two-tier system in secondary and further education. They will remove the parity of esteem which should exist between vocational and academic courses.

The number of planned UTCs is to be doubled from 12 to at least 24.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, described UTCs as “untried and untested” and questioned whether they will successfully equip young people with the skills they need for the workplace:

“This UTCs plan seems to be driven by a desire to bankroll business rather than by sound educational considerations.

“All the evidence suggests that UTCs will promote a more divisive education system that will be founded on the politics of elitism.

“Millions of pounds of public money are being spent on these new institutions at a time when thousands of schools around the country are now facing massive budget cuts.”

NASUWT advice at: www.nasuwt.org.uk/EducationReform


Flexible working U-turn condemned

The scrapping of plans rights to give all parents and carers the right to work flexibly has been condemned by the NASUWT.

From 6 April 2011 all workers with children under the age of 18 should have been able to make a request to their employer for flexible working in a bid to introduce more family friendly working practices. Previously, the right only applied to workers with children under 16 or disabled children up to the age of 18.

However, it was announced in March this is extension was being halted and reviewed. Plans to extend flexible working rights to all workers now also look unlikely to come to fruition.

A new system of additional paternity leave has come into force which aims to provide parents with more flexibility and choice in managing child care.

Under the new regulations, fathers of children born or adopted on or after 3 April 2011 are entitled to up to 26 weeks’ additional paid paternity leave, which can be taken if the mother returns to work during her statutory maternity or adoption period. The scheme aims to enable fathers to play a greater role in raising their child and give parents more flexibility in sharing their maternity and paternity leave.

The NASUWT believes that the Coalition’s U-turn on flexible working demonstrates yet again its desire to placate business at the expense of ordinary workers.

Flexible working can bring huge benefits to both employees and employers and this decision will do nothing to help foster a genuinely family-friendly working culture.

NASUWT advice on flexible working can be found at www.nasuwt.org.uk/FlexibleWorking