Chuka Umunna MP

Streatham MP Chuka Umunna has joined students at Fenstanton Primary School in Tulse Hill, opening the school’s new community recycling area at its launch event which took place last week.

The launch of the facility took place alongside the school’s Big Tidy Up event to clean up the school environment.

Mr Umunna cut the ribbon alongside students who had worked on creating the community recycling area. Students of Fenstanton and other nearby schools have been involved, including art students from nearby secondary school St Martin-in-the-Fields who have assisted.

Primarily, Fenstanton’s year six contributed to the project which is their gift to the school before they leave to secondary school.

Commenting, Mr Umunna said: “The community recycling area will provide an excellent facility and I was pleased to be able to meet with the students whose hard work created it.”

Chuka is a patron of the Lambeth College London Programme and presented graduation awards its official launch event in April – where this video was made.

The programme gives young people opportunities to develop their skills and increase their employability working with a number of partner firms. Students take part in challenges to help them translate college based learning into performance, and all students attending the College’s Sixth Form Centre are eligible to take part.

Lambeth has recently launched a campaign highlighting the need for more primary school places in our borough.

This is an issue affecting many areas across London and beyond, but demand for school places is particularly high in our area, and has gone up by more than 40% in just four years in places.

Lambeth predicts that demand will outstrip supply and a shortfall could develop in school places in the coming years, so it is crucial that a clear message is sent to the government now. The council has already created 300 additional places since 2009 and needs an extra 300 places by 2015.

The campaign website includes further information and details of how to take action on this issue by writing to Education Secretary Michael Gove.

Chuka Umunna, London’s youngest MP, has raised with ministers concerns that the government’s bursary scheme to replace Education Maintenance Allowance could be discriminatory.

The government’s own equality impact assessment into EMA’s replacement, which was published recently, says students could face discrimination under the new scheme, which it says is “open to unintended discrimination on the basis of disability; gender; ethnicity or other characteristics protected under equality law.”

The assessment says that the government is still considering whether a system of “central arbitration” should be introduced to ensure that unintended discrimination does not take place.

Mr Umunna raised the concerns about discrimination under the new system with Leader of the House Sir George Young yesterday and was promised a response from Education Secretary Michael Gove on the matter.

Under the EMA system, which is being abolished by the government, awards are made in bands according to household income and 650,000 young people benefitted, but under the new system just 12,000 stand to receive support.

A government consultation on the new system finishes on May 20, but there are doubts over whether the new system can be put in place for students to make applications and for allocations of bursary funding to be made by the start of the 2011-12 academic year in September.

Many further questions remain about the new bursary system replacing EMA, including what support schools and colleges will be given: EMA was administered by central government, but schools and colleges themselves will administer the new system. It is also unclear how the government plans to advertise and inform students of the new system and its eligibility criteria, particularly given the limited timeframe in which to do so.

Mr Umunna has tabled a series of parliamentary questions for Education Secretary Michael Gove seeking answers on these questions, including what date students will receive funding and when applications must be made by.

In December, Mr Umunna visited Lambeth College along with Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham MP to meet with students who benefitted from EMA; 60 per cent of students at the college received the allowance.

Commenting, Mr Umunna said:

“There are real doubts about the government’s planned replacement for EMA, both on whether it will create the potential for discrimination and on whether it will be fully up and running in time and how students will be informed of the changes and the new eligibility criteria.

“More than 60% of students at Lambeth College received EMA and it made a real difference, with lower dropping out rates and improved qualifications among those receiving the support.”

Last month, Chuka attended the launch of Lambeth College’s London Programme, of which he is a patron, and presented graduation awards to its initial participants.

The innovative programme gives young people the opportunity to develop their skills and demonstrate their employability and is delivered in partnership with businesses.

Further details on the programme are here

Streatham MP Chuka Umunna has challenged fellow South London MP Simon Hughes in Parliament over cuts to London South Bank University and increases in student fees.

London South Bank University has recently announced that as a result of government policies it will have to charge fees of £8,450 from next year for undergraduate degree courses.

Professor Martin Earwicker said earlier this month: “In the cuts the Government has imposed, the university lost 92 per cent of its teaching grant, 60 per cent of its capital grant and half of its innovation fund. This fee level does no more than put us to slightly less than we had before. The university is not gaining at all.”

Simon Hughes, who resisted calls to vote against increased tuition fees in December, instead abstaining on the matter, was appointed as Advocate for Access to Education.

Addressing Mr Hughes in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Umunna said:

“The right hon. Gentleman’s constituency and mine share a local university: London South Bank University. May I ask him two questions?

“Secondly, does the right hon. Gentleman accept or buy into the principle that higher education should be a partnership between government and the individual? If so, how does he explain the 92% cut in the teaching grant, the 60% cut in the capital grant and the 50% in the innovation grant for London South Bank university from the Government?”

Between 1997 and 2009, the number of young people from Lambeth going to university went up by more than 80% but with the abolition of Education Maintenance Allowance and increases in student fees there are fears that this progress could be reversed.

Chuka Umunna MP this week intervened in a debate on the abolition of education maintenance allowance (EMA) in Parliament and voted against the government’s decision to axe the grant.

This week, the Labour opposition forced a vote in the House of Commons on EMA abolition. Last month, Mr Umunna visited Lambeth College, where 60 per cent of students receive EMA, along with shadow education secretary Andy Burnham.

During their visit, they spoke with students who said EMA meant the difference between having to walk to college or being able to use public transport, being able to eat lunch at college, and enabled them to buy books and study materials relating to their course.

At Lambeth College, which is situated in the fifth most deprived borough in London, 90% of students receiving EMA completed their course compared with 75% of non-recipients and attainment levels were higher among those who received EMA, and of those who stayed on 94% received qualifications compared with 81% for non recipients.

Commenting after the debate, Mr Umunna said: “When I spoke with students who benefit from EMA at Lambeth College, they told me they would do whatever it takes, moving heaven and earth to stay in education and finish their course.

“My fear is that without EMA, many will struggle to continue studying and others will be put off from further education. The Conservative-led government’s decision to scrap EMA is an attack on the opportunities of local young people.

“Alongside the high levels of youth unemployment announced this week, the abolition of the Future Jobs Fund and the raising of student fees to £9,000 a year, this is nothing less than an attack on a generation of young people.

This week, Parliament voted on a motion on the abolition of EMA – Chuka spoke in support of retaining the student support, which more than 3,836 young people in Lambeth benefitted from last year.

In the video above, Chuka and Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham discuss EMA during their visit to Lambeth College last month where they spoke with students there about the difference the support had made to their lives.

Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham today visited Lambeth College in Clapham with local MP Chuka Umunna and shadow minister for further education Gordon Marsden to speak to students affected by the government’s withdrawal of education maintenance allowance (EMA).

The trio spoke with students currently studying at the college who said the removal of EMA would mean they would not be able to afford textbooks or would have to go without eating during their days studying.

At Lambeth College, which is situated in the fifth most deprived borough in London, 60% of students receive EMA and of these, 85 per cent receive the full amount of £30 per week. In academic year 2009/10, 90% of students receiving EMA completed their course compared with 75% of non-recipients.

Lambeth College Principal Richard Chambers and Chair of Governors Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly have written to Mr Umunna to voice opposition to the government’s decision to abolish EMA. In their letter, they say: “We believe that the Department of Education has made the wrong decision and that disadvantaged young people in Lambeth and adjoining boroughs will suffer as a result of the decision.”
Commenting, Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham said:

“For young people from less well-off backgrounds, EMA provides a helping hand to succeed. By scrapping EMAs and trebling tuition fees, the Government is pulling up the drawbridge and kicking away the ladder. They seem intent on creating a segregated and elitist education system where success is possible for the few, not for everyone. The risk is a lost generation of students, who have the talent but not the financial means to stay in post-16 education.”

Local MP Chuka Umunna said:

“More than 60% of students at Lambeth College receive EMA and it makes a real difference – those getting the support are more likely to achieve a qualification and less likely to drop out of their course as a result.

“The number of young people from Lambeth going to university went up by more than 80% between 1997 and 2009. The government’s withdrawal of EMA threatens to undo this good work and prevent talented young people from staying on in education.”

Chuka visited Lambeth College this morning with shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham and shadow minister for further education Gordon Marsden to talk with students affected by the government’s abolition of education maintenance allowance.

Lambeth College is located in the fifth most deprived borough of London and 60% of students receive EMA, of these 85% receive the full amount of £30 per week. In the academic year 2009/10, 90% of students receiving EMA completed their course compared with 75% of non-recipients.

Commenting on the cut, Chuka said

“More than 60% of students at Lambeth College receive EMA and it makes a real difference – those getting the support are more likely to achieve a qualification and less likely to drop out of their course as a result.

“The number of young people from Lambeth going to university went up by more than 80% between 1997 and 2009. The government’s withdrawal of EMA threatens to undo this good work and prevent talented young people from staying on in education.”

Luke, a former student from the college, then took part in a roundtable discussion chaired by Andy Burnham to a in Westminster, where he spoke about the positive impact of EMA and how it enabled him to pursue his ambition of going to university.

This afternoon, Chuka spoke in a Westminster Hall debate on the future of support for further education students to defend EMA and pass on comments made by students at Lambeth College this morning.