WE WISH to express our concern at the Department for Education’s decision to stop paying Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) in July 2011 to 16-18 year olds, including those who will be halfway through their course and those whose household income is less than £20,817 per year.

We are also alarmed that the Department is stopping new applications at the end of December before it has alternative arrangements in place.

The overall spending cut, from £574 million to possibly as little as £75 million, will cause real hardship for many young people and their families and force others to narrow their choice or stop attending education altogether.

We urge ministers to reconsider their decision and to remove financial obstacles to study for young people from low income families.

Liz Philip, principal, Askham Bryan College; Alan Blackwell, principal, Craven College; Tim Grant, principal, Darlington College; Tom Potter, principal, Scarborough Sixth Form College; Allan Stewart, principal, Selby College; Alison Birkinshaw, principal, York College; Bonita Hodge, principal, Yorkshire Coast College.


• Is Mr Davis (Letters, December 7) aware that the participation age is being raised to 17 by 2013 and 18 by 2015?

Our young people have to be doing some sort of training, whether that’s part-time or full-time education, or work-based, and that suggests that education up to 18 is a right and not a privilege.

What I find most difficult to swallow about the whole EMA debacle is the way that the scheme has been stopped.

EMA payments are being stopped at the end of the academic year, so students who have committed to two-year courses at a specific institution now have the uncertainty as to whether they will be able to continue next year.

Some of my students travel considerable distances and the reason they can is the EMA payment, which just about covers their travel expenses.

This is causing a lot of worry and stress. If students have to stay in some form of education until they are 18, we should be supporting them to do so, not cutting support off so that the only people who can participate in full-time education are those who are lucky enough to have rich parents!

Charlie Dean, York.