Sixth-formers to be paid to stay on at school

Sixth-form students who regularly go to school will be paid up to £30 a week as an incentive to stay, it was announced today.

The "earn as you learn" scheme will be means-tested, but has been hailed as a way of reducing the country's post-16 drop-out rate.

In pilot projects, attendance of 16-year-old boys rose by 6.9 per cent while participation for girls of the same age increased by 5.9 per cent.

All eligible Year 11 students are being urged to apply for the new Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) to reduce the UK's drop-out rates from education - among the highest in the western world.

The pilot schemes have been carried out in 56 local education authorities since 1999 and involved 120,000 Year 12 students, largely from economically deprived areas.

The news came as a poll reveals today the astonishing extent to which parents are prepared to lie to get their children into what they believe to be the right school.

Parents are so desperate that they are prepared to falsify their address, lie about their religious beliefs and even pretend to be divorced in order to get their child into their school of choice. The drastic steps parents are prepared to take is revealed in a YouGov survey, which found that of 1,232 questioned, more than a quarter would consider "one dishonest measure" if they were unhappy with their nearest state school.

Twenty per cent said they would lie or exaggerate their religious beliefs to get their child into a church school, while 15 per cent would use a false address to put themselves into the catchment area of their favoured school.