‘We support retention of Education Maintenance Allowance’ – Fearon

Sinn Féin MLA Megan Fearon has said today that the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) must be maintained if we are to encourage people to stay on in education.

Fearon, who is the Sinn Féin spokesperson on Families, Children and Youth stated, “Many young people make a decision to leave education prematurely due to financial concerns. The introduction of the EMA was designed to give young students the option of staying on in education and removing financial barriers in their way of doing this.

“The demonstration in Belfast highlights the level of feeling amongst students who are afraid of losing this allowance which offers them a form of independence.

“Sinn Féin supports the retention of EMA, but we are concerned that the five options that were put out in the recent consultation will not meet the needs of many students who currently avail of the allowance.

She added, “Sinn Féin will continue to work with students and their representative bodies in order to find a formula that will increase the numbers of students staying on longer at school.”

Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=25717

Posted by Newry Times News on Nov 25 2012. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry