I will start off by thanking the committee for congratulating me on the first class honours degree. I would also like to congratulate Mr. David Joyce, who is Marie Joyce’s nephew, on finishing his master’s degree in teaching, also with first class honours.
I would like to thank the committee on behalf of the Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre, which welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the committee on Traveller education with reference to inequality, digital divide and the impact of reduced timetables. Pavee Point is a national, non-governmental organisation that promotes the realisation of human rights and equality for Travellers and Roma in Ireland.
From our start in 1985, Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre has given central importance to pursuing full and equal participation for Travellers throughout the education system. This was, and is, based on our understanding of education’s key importance to human dignity and rights. Our work more recently expanded to include Roma. Now, in the field of education, we are firmly committed to the system change that is essential.
The Department of Education's guidelines on Traveller education in primary schools and post-primary schools states that its central policy aim is the meaningful participation and highest attainment of the Traveller child so that, in common with the children of the nation, he or she may live a full life as a child and realise his or her full potential as a unique individual, proud of and affirmed in his or her identity as a Traveller and a citizen of Ireland.
The system change Pavee Point believes essential needs to be reflected as a key component of the national strategy on Traveller education, which was promised in the programme for Government. This strategy should cover all levels and issues. It needs to be developed in association with Traveller and Roma organisations, to have clear targets and timelines, and resources, and to continue to be monitored and implemented in partnership with Traveller organisations.
According to enrolment figures, Travellers transfer from primary school into the secondary school and begin dropping out in later years. Across the first three years of the secondary cycle, about 74% of Travellers aged 12 to 15 years are enrolled. The dramatic drop is at the point of transfer to senior cycle, in which about 30% of Travellers aged 16 to 19 years are enrolled.
Since 2007-08, the Higher Education Authority, HEA, has conducted an equal access survey of each cohort of new entrants, tracking enrolments from marginal populations, including Travellers. In 2015, it published the National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education 2015-2021. In the action plan for increasing Traveller participation in education from 2019 to 2021, the targeted numbers for increasing Traveller participation has had some modest success. It has been a useful tool in the promotion of Traveller education and ambition. Such targets and associated special measures are needed at all educational levels.
Further education and training participation from 2019 to 2020 included 1,527 Travellers and 431 Roma. More than 40% were in adult literacy groups or in Youthreach. Almost 60% were under 25 years of age. Some 43% were men, while 57% women. Of those enrolled, 88% partially or fully completed a course in 2019, and 60% of those who completed a certified course achieved. Travellers comprise 0.6% to 1% of Irish society, but 0.1% of new entrants to third level institutions. The disaggregated data are essential to track baseline information and progress in achieving targets and objectives, but it is important to understand that there are real people behind these figures.
I am one of the 110 students who are enrolled in universities, according to the HEA 2019-20 data. I was an early school leaver. I left school after primary school, due to isolation, exclusion, and marginalisation. After a few days' absence, I was asked what the point was in me coming back, as I would never amount to anything. I left that school crushed. I went back to third level education as a mature student and successfully completed my degree in May of this year with a first class honours, despite the challenges and barriers that Covid-19 created and on top of the challenges and barriers that pre-existed long before Covid-19.
On the digital divide and reduced timetables, our previous submission to the committee discussed a number of concerns for Travellers in education. These have been further exacerbated by the conditions created by Covid-19. The concerns include inequalities associated with the marginalisation and discrimination that existed pre-Covid-19 for Traveller students across every level of the education system. The reality of ongoing prejudice, racism and discrimination against Travellers, including in the education system, should not be ignored or underestimated.
Unconscious bias, an important issue that needs to be addressed for a variety of discriminations, needs to be understood as potentially masking real underlying racism and its effects and the indirect discrimination described in our equality legislation. This is of particular concern for Traveller students completing examinations, including the leaving certificate.
Another concerning issue is the implementation of remote learning and the difficult impacts of the digital divide, which Covid-19 has exposed. This is presenting as an issue for Travellers, in terms of access and participation in primary, post-primary and higher education. These concerns were particularly highlighted in the national education forums that Pavee Point organised in association with the National Traveller Women’s Forum, NTWF, to examine the education implications of Covid-19 for Travellers and Roma.
This year’s forum report indicates that the issues continue and can have long-term consequences.
Traveller students were left at an extreme disadvantage given the issue of access to IT facilities, high costs of broadband, lack of access to devices, resources, books, libraries and private quiet spaces to study. As someone who has spent the last few years studying in Maynooth during the pandemic, I know that better than anyone. Lack of broadband is a serious concern for those living on halting sites and it may have had an impact on the ability of some to register for the predicted grade process for the leaving certificate. Online learning presents its own difficulties, including for Traveller and Roma parents, in respect of language or literacy skills. It also holds the possibility of missing lectures due to bad Wi-Fi, inability to ask questions and difficulties with engagement.