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Labour hopeful pledges to give more help to students

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Published Date: 10 August 2008
By Christopher Claire
LABOUR leadership candidate Iain Gray yesterday pledged that bringing cash help for Scottish students in line with their counterparts in England would be a priority if he was elected.
Gray is competing against former health minister Andy Kerr and ex-justice minister Cathy Jamieson to succeed Wendy Alexander as Labour's Holyrood leader.

He said students in Scotland who are eligible for full financial support received a total of £4,510 a year.

But he said students in England in the same situation could get £6,200 a year.

The former enterprise minister added there were 35,000 students in Scotland who receive full support from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. And he claimed it would cost £18m a year to increase their loans to match support given to students in England.

Meanwhile, Cathy Jamieson called for an extra £15m to be spent on helping children in the first year of school.

She claimed the cash would deliver at least 500 qualified early years workers for primary one classes.



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  • Last Updated: 09 August 2008 11:56 PM
  • Source: Scotland On Sunday
  • Location: Scotland
  • Related Topics: Scottish Labour Party
 
1

The Former Mr. Angry,

Perth 10/08/2008 01:21:23
Strange that - Labour rivals trying to outdo each other on how much they can spend and on whom. Not a peep about how it will be funded or trying to reduce the burgeoning public expenditure under Labour. It's all tax and spend - business as usual, copied from the top.
2

FrancesP,

10/08/2008 01:50:17
The problem here is that the last time Gray announced a policy (just last Monday on council tax) he was forced into an embarrassing climbdown a mere forty-eight hours later. If he's going to renege on this one as well (given the vagueness of the language it seems fairly likely) perhaps this time he should consider waiting until AFTER the votes are counted. That's the way it's normally done, I believe.
3

scottishcoffindodgerno1,

Tram City 10/08/2008 08:22:02
All these goodies that lablior hopefuls are going to give away,when will this mana from heaven happen.there was no sign of it when they were in power.So don't hold your breath waiting
4

Calvinist,

10/08/2008 09:13:44
Perhaps he will also consider restoring the estimated £120 million shortfall in funding imposed on Scottish universities by the present adminstration.
5

Linda,

Edinburgh 10/08/2008 10:39:47
A bit late for Labour to do anything for students.

Labour along with Tories voted against the abolition of the Graduate Endowment Fees which the SNP has scrapped in Scotland thus saving each strudent £2300 a year.

Meanwhile London Labour has doubled the tax rate for students earning from 10p to 20p.

Gordon Brown has the cash to scrap Tuition Fees in England and Wales. Why doesn't he use it?
6

livilion,

livingston 10/08/2008 12:06:34
Wasn't it Labour who scrapped Student Grants and taxed poorer students out of the education system by introducing Student Loans/Tuition Fees/Graduate Endowment Fees in the first place?

Why not re-introduce the crazy old concept of 'Education for those with the ability to learn', and ditch New Labour's Victorian values of 'Take anything you want, if you've got the money to pay for it'?
7

livilion,

livingston 10/08/2008 12:13:26
>>The former enterprise minister added there were 35,000 students in Scotland who receive full support from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. And he claimed it would cost £18m a year to increase their loans to match support given to students in England.<<

Why not make it open ended; borrow as much as you like so long as you can pay it back when you leave education, or graduate, whichever comes first?
8

Climate change is a fraud,

10/08/2008 14:28:40
I don't want to pay more taxes just so that 50% of all 18-30-year-olds can go back to school to learn ice skating and media.

University should be for the top 5-8% ability. The rest should learn a trade or go and work in one of the many service industries that we have in the UK.
9

donald,

glasgow 11/08/2008 06:21:12
Hopeless Labourites attacked Students without warning over tuition Fees and and reducing grants. What a memory loss the Three Stooges have.

 

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