Students: EMA is a necessity, not a bribe

This article titled “Students: EMA is a necessity, not a bribe” was written by Sam Jones, for The Guardian on Friday 17th December 2010 21.24 UTC

Helen Kassarate is an 18-year-old student at Brooke House sixth form college in east London, and she’s not happy about the way students such as herself have been portrayed this week.

She claims the education maintenance allowance which the government will abolish next summer. One columnist has called pupils such as her “goons”.

“I live with an extended family, but my EMA helps me support myself,” she says. “I don’t spend my EMA on crap. Yes, people are going to scam the system, but the majority of us need it. It’s not a bribe for us, it’s a necessity.”

Kassarate’s EMA pays for travel, food and her glasses, and helps her contribute to the family’s bills when she has to. Without it, she might be forced to choose between continuing her education and getting a job.

Fellow student James Adams, who lives with his mother in a two-bed council flat in London Fields, uses his EMA to maintain his independence.

“I spend most of it on travel,” he said. “Some students spend the money on alcohol and cigarettes, but most don’t. It’s completely wrong to stereotype us all. The EMA does not discriminate, it just gives impoverished people the chance to go to college.”

For others, the anger at the prospect of losing between £10 and £30 a week is compounded by the stereotypes and language that some commentators are peddling – and by what they see as a cheap political betrayal.

In a Daily Telegraph blog this week, Katharine Birbalsingh, the teacher who became the darling of this year’s Tory party conference, referred to students on EMA as “goons” who have to be bribed to come to school, where they “disrupt, cause misery for the ones who want to learn, and at the end of the week collect their cheque for a week of work well done”.

“I think [Birbalsingh’s] language is completely unfair,” said Marriyah Bhana, who lives in Hackney with her parents and four sisters. “On what basis is she labelling people goons? They say the EMA is an incentive. It is. But it’s also a necessity.”

The government’s education proposals have led the 17-year-old to question both its sincerity and its ideology. “During the election campaign, [David] Cameron portrayed himself as a compassionate, one-nation Conservative, but now I think he was just doing it to win votes.”

Ken Warman, the principal at BSix, as the college styles itself, is also worried about the economic consequences of scrapping the EMA. 70% of the students at the college receive the allowance, and he fears its loss will prove a huge problem for many families.

“The threat is massive and it will be a significant blow to household income,” he said. “If you have one kid on EMA, that’s £120 a month, if you’ve got two, then it’s £240 a month.” Whatever replacement support the government is considering, he worries, will be too little and poorly targeted.

Warman also wonders about the message that the government is sending out: first tuition fees and now the EMA. “They should not underestimate the damage that this is doing to the political process,” he said.

James Mills, who heads the Save the EMA campaign, describes the government’s plans as “an assault on the aspirations of the poorest young people in this country”.

Mills, a researcher for the Labour MP John Robertson, said it was unfair. “These young people rely on this money, and now before they even get to decide if they want to take on the debt of higher education, the ladder is being pulled up.”

Others have been encouraged by the passion and political anger that the situation had stirred in teenagers around the land. “What we’ve been seeing is the politicisation and radicalisation of youth,” said Mark Bergfeld, a spokesman for the Education Activists Network and a member of the NUS national executive council.

Helen Kassarate, though, would be the first to point out that she is not a revolutionary, nor a slum kid, nor a goon. “I’m a good student who comes in every day and does her best. And I don’t use where I come from as an excuse. I’m just an average Joe trying to make my way through college.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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