EMA

[Jimmy Grimble]

Did you do that because you wanted to maximise your grades and your future earnings potential or to get your EMA?

EMA seems to be a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Grades. But I'm not going to deny that EMA was a bonus.

 

[cjwoolven]

I couldnt get EMA in my recent college years, i agree that voucher systems should be used, so the money introduced does go to a good cause. As for the bonuses, well... its the right thing that they're being scrapped.

Not getting EMA pretty much forced me into getting a part-time job, and its a good passer of time and the moneys involved is always good.

 

[The Ringleader Returns!]

Is there difference really that large between year 11 (or below) and year 12 that some students are to need £30 a week?

None at all.

I'm moving from Year 11 to year 12 this summer and I can't believe I'm being paid £30 a week to go to 6th form which is down the road from my house.

 

[Wilko]

None at all.

I'm moving from Year 11 to year 12 this summer and I can't believe I'm being paid £30 a week to go to 6th form which is down the road from my house.

Not your fault though is it, as others have said, you would be a mug to not take it. My advice would be take the money and enjoy it but do not take it as your sole purpose for being at college.

 

[KneeOn]

You raise a very good point, without wanting to sound too much like a looney leftie, the passion has gone from further education and learning. The majority of students now do not take an outside/external interest in their subject and simply want to know what to do to pass the exam - NOTHING ELSE.

In my subject of Sociology I used to get loads of Feminists and Marxists, students interested in political lectures, reading communist articles, staying behind for a chat after the lesson etc.

It is a shame that students now often simply want to be taught how to pass the exam and collect their £30 at the end of the week. I do not blame them though, that is the educational environment they have grown up in. I do not think it is making independent thinkers with an ability for free thinking, it is simply mass producing students who are effective in exam technique.

Although I now teach the subject I did my degree in, I actually took the subject for a love and passion for it rather than the intention to make more money one day. In fact, the very thought that students simply do further/higher education for the sole principle of making more money one day actually depresses and upsets me

I'm quite in to Sociology but the course is one that is just boring. Very little room IMO for opinion