Hey, Teacher, leave those kids alone! (and pay them as well)

Yes, it’s true, kids get paid to study these days. This is nothing new. The EMA scheme has been rolled out across Wales for the past three years. If you were sixteen or seventeen what would you have spent £30 a week on? It didn’t take long for me to decide. Flashbacks of the amazing ‘Go Sing’ Chinese takeaway eaten under the subway, mixing happily with the five pints from the King’s Head. Hardly original. And hardly academic. But that’s the whole point of the scheme – it’s meant as an incentive scheme. Teachers aren’t allowed to tell their pupils what they should or should not be spending their money on. Whoever invented this scheme knew something about the secrets of motivation.
Does it work? Who knows. I believe the scheme is being evaluated as I type these words. Some would argue that the scheme needs to work. If we are to believe people like Lord Sandy Leitch, then it makes sense to improve attendance levels, because this country faces quite a serious problem in the future; that of trying to compete with the skills level in other countries in the world, such as China, and that these countries will, as a result, exert a huge influence on our way of life. A daunting prospect. Right, where’s that takeaway menu…