London: Students are holding a day of action to call attention to government plans to scrap the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) that pays poor teenagers to stay on in education.
Shane Chowen, the National Union of Students vice-president for further education, posted on the Twitter website: "Massive weeks for the #save EMA campaign and the futures of hundreds of thousands of young people. Get involved".
Research out yesterday suggested seven in 10 poor teenagers would drop out of school if the EMA was abolished and almost two-fifths (38 per cent) said they would not have started their course without the grant.
The EMA is a weekly payment of between 10 and 30 given to 16- to 18-year-olds living in households earning under £30,800 (Dh180,975) a year, to help them stay in education.
But the government intends to withdraw the grant which is already closed to new applicants. The survey of more than 700 EMA recipients, conducted by the University and College Union (UCU) with the Association of Colleges (AoC), found 70 per cent said they would have to drop out of their course if their grant was withdrawn.
Students from sixth forms and colleges will demonstrate against the abolition of the EMA.