I am grateful for the taking of this matter by the House and I thank the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Treacy, for coming in to respond.
I call on the Minister for Education and Science to restore the integration programme which had been in operation for Traveller children at two primary schools in Rathkeale. The programme took place up to and including the 1998-1999 school year since when an age appropriate integration programme has been operated by the Department, a programme which is simply not working. Rathkeale is in a unique position in County Limerick in that there is a huge community of settled Travellers with a high influx of transient Travellers. I want to outline the problem that has arisen.
In 1998 to 1999, and prior to that, the children of transient Travellers were accepted in these primary schools in Rathkeale, put in special classes for assessment and then mainstreamed into regular classes according to their academic level. That makes a great deal of sense. No problem exists with the children of the settled Traveller community in Rathkeale; the problem is in dealing with the children of transient Travellers. A huge problem exists with enrolments at different times of the year after September. It could be in October, November, December and even January and this can be very upsetting. Normally a school principal or teacher would know the enrolment at the commencement of the school year and could plan accordingly. This cannot be the case with age appropriate integration. Some class sizes can double with 50% of the pupils miles ahead of the others academically and this is totally unsatisfactory.
In recent weeks a Traveller child who arrived in the middle of the academic year and was integrated into a mainstream sixth class could not recite the alphabet. I am not casting any aspersions on the child, I am simply making the point that the child was put into sixth class because of reaching the age of 11 years. That is very off-putting and upsetting for the child and it is very difficult for any teacher to carry on with children who are at a considerably higher academic level. It is not good enough.
I respectfully suggest that age appropriate integration is to the detriment of both the settled community and of Traveller children. It adds considerably to class disruption, which is happening on a widescale basis, and to classroom and playground bullying. There are very definite fears and worries with regard to health and safety in classrooms and in the playground. The afternoon break that the children were used to has had to be abandoned because teachers find it so difficult to supervise. That is the only option and it is very sad for all the children involved.
Parents from the settled community have already withdrawn some of their children from both primary schools, the boys and the girls national school, and others have indicated to me in the strongest possible terms that they are quite prepared, and fully intend, to withdraw their children from both these schools unless something changes before the commencement of the next school term. That is very sad in Rathkeale where we have had good integration and acceptance from both sides of the community which has worked very well up to this.
We all know, from our experience of primary schools, of children who fell behind academically and were kept back for a year, given extra help, caught up and resumed class once again. That logic still applies. How can we then put children into a class who have not reached the academic level of those already there? That matter needs to be addressed. I find it difficult that the Department justifies age appropriate placement of Travellers in mainstream classes where the majority are at a different level of reading and maths and in which they are totally lost. The mainstream children are suffering because teachers do not have the time to help them. It is fair to say that no child benefits in these circumstances. That is the feedback coming from parents, teachers and the board of management, all of whom say the same thing.
It is not about money or putting in resources. Rathkeale gets additional resources and capitation grants, but that is not solving the problem. What can stop the problem is a reversion to the original programme. It might be asked why Rathkeale should be different, but Rathkeale is different. It has a huge community of Travellers and a huge influx of transient Travellers and something different has to be done.
The professional discretion and practical experience of teachers, the board of management and of parents should dictate in this case. I respect the need for a national policy and age appropriate integration obviously works in other places; I am sure the Department would not have it if it did not, but it is not working in Rathkeale and it is not going to work. We will continue having those problems until such time as the Department decides it is time to change. The teachers have made their views known very clearly to the school inspectors, the Minister has been made aware of the situation, but unfortunately nothing has happened. It is a pity for the sake of both the settled and transient community, who travel to Rathkeale on a regular basis. They spend two or three months there, move to Germany or some place in Europe and come back the following year.
To be fair, the parents of the transient Travellers are pointing out that their children need to learn some maths and geography. As advertised in the Department's Frequently Asked Questions document on its website, Traveller parents want a good basic education, but are more interested in skills which will benefit their children rather than paper qualifications. I have no problem with Traveller children getting paper qualifications but not at the expense of children from the settled community and of the suffering of Traveller children also. I ask the Minister of State to relay my views to the Department. I hope common sense will prevail and that we will be able to revert to the situation that prevailed in the 1998-99 school year.
