Vol. 490 No. 7
32 Mr. McDowell asked the Minister for Education and Science the incentives and support measures, if any, he proposes to introduce in order that more children from the travelling community will receive a secondary education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11082/98]
A number of measures are in place to encourage more children from the travelling community to receive a second level education. These measures operate at three levels.
A visiting teacher service for travellers has been expanded in recent years and now employs 20 teachers. The remit of these teachers has also been extended to cover pupils of second level age. This service provides an essential support for children of the travelling community.
In addition seven junior education centres operate under the aegis of the vocational education committees and cater for about 270 children in the 12 to 15 years age bracket. A more favourable pupil-teacher ratio of 10 : 1 is applied to these centres and a grant of £200 is paid in respect of each pupil to meet non-pay costs.
The third plank of provision is the integration of children of the travelling community into mainstream second level schools. Increasingly more children are catered for under this option and at present it is estimated that about 400 children from the travelling community are in mainstream second level education. My Department provides additional resources by way of extra teaching hours for schools for this purpose.
I am very conscious of the fact that, while progress has been made, there still remains a very real problem. For this reason, I have asked my Department to review provision in this area and expect to have a report and recommendations shortly. I have also met a number of organisations representative of the travelling community on this issue.
