Vol. 396 No. 6
41 Mr. Kavanagh asked the Minister for Education if she recognises the need for the appointment of further visiting teachers to work with travellers' children; the proposals, if any, she has in this area; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
221 Mr. T. Kitt asked the Minister for Education if she will appoint additional visiting teachers to promote the enrolment and school attendance of travelling children and to develop communication between school and home.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 41 and 221 together. The visiting teacher service is applied to areas of large traveller populations and the need for extensions to the service is constantly monitored.
The Department grant aids the salary and travelling expenses of the national co-ordinator for the education of traveller children who is employed by the national council for traveller people. The main objective of the national co-ordinator is to ensure that all traveller children will receive the maximum possible education and social care. She liaises closely with local traveller settlement committees, school inspectors and teachers involved in developing educational facilities for travellers.
The Department grant-aids the tuition and transport costs in respect of pre-schools for travellers. There are 47 such pre-schools and their primary aim is to prepare traveller children for primary education. These are run by voluntary bodies who actively encourage traveller parents to send their children to school.
There are a total of 143 special classes attached to ordinary national schools. In addition, a large number of travellers are integrated into mainstream education. In this connection a survey carried out by the Department's inspectorate in early 1988 revealed that there were almost 4,000 children attending school at primary level (i.e. 2,600 in special classes and 1,400 in mainstream education).
However, the number of special classes has increased from 110 to 143 in the interim period.
