The call came in response to a newly published report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee criticising the Government’s assessment of the impacts of scrapping EMA.
The Committee, which also announced it will return to the issue of EMA, joins the list of other critics which includes the Home Affairs Select Committee, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the OECD and Thomas Spielhofer who lead the National Foundation for Educational Research report which the Government used to justify the scrapping of EMA and suggested ministers' approach was the result of "misinterpreting the facts."
Toni Pearce, NUS Vice-President (Further Education), said:
“As the tally of critics of Michael Gove’s approach to the scrapping of EMA grows, now is the time for him to admit that he got this policy disastrously wrong and reinstate EMA."
“EMA helped thousands of young people to stay in education and improve their life chances, by any reasonable measure it worked and should never have been scrapped. Ministers twisted the evidence, ignored experts, failed to properly analyse the impact of this decision, and hurriedly created an underfunded replacement which they have unsurprisingly already had to amend several times."
"As college students prepare for the start of the new academic year there is no evidence that the replacement scheme proposed by the Government will ensure those who need the money in their pockets to support their studies will be adequately supported or that participation in education will not be damaged. The fact the Education Secretary was repeatedly warned but carried on regardless is unacceptable for those who have had their futures put at risk."