A PILOT scheme that has paid Bolton sixth-formers up to £30 a week for continuing to attend school is to be extended throughout the country.

Since 1999,16-year-old students from lower income families in Bolton have been able to receive an education maintenance allowance for continuing with studies after GCSE.

The allowance -- worth between £10 and £30 a week -- is given to pupils with high attendance records.

Bolton was one of 56 local education authorities to pilot the scheme. Now the government has announced it will be open to all 16-year-olds from households with incomes of less than £30,000 a year from September.

David Waugh, head of sixth form at Rivington and Blackrod High School, hailed the "earn as you learn" scheme a big success. About a third of his sixth formers receive the allowance.

He said: "It has certainly had an effect in terms of retention and motivation. Our retention rate is now 93.5 per cent, before the pilot it was in the low 80s."

Bolton Community College Principal Alison Bowes said: "We have found it a real winner in encouraging young people to continue in education and training."

The means-tested scheme has been hailed as a way of reducing the UK's post-16 education drop-out rate.

- which are among the highest in the western world.

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