What is EMA – Education Maintenance Allowance ?
Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is a payment made by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) directly into a student’s bank account if they stay on in education at school or college after their GCSEs (i.e. Year 12 and 13 students). [For more information on EMA from the DfES website click here.] The implementation of EMA requires an attendance monitoring system to be in place in the school. This has to take account of term dates, guided learning activities which take place outside of term time, and student absences both authorised and unauthorised. Attendance periods may be lesson-by-lesson, period-by-period or AM/PM, with the EMA minimum being two learning sessions per day. Each week all the records for each learning session need to be collated as the basis for making EMA payments, and all such information must be retained for a minimum of three years. Education Maintenance Allowance applies to all relevant schools and colleges from September 2004.
