Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 July 2006
645 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Science the action she will take regarding the discrimination and victimisation of the Travellers in the educational system here; and the measures she is taking to prevent the Travelling community from dropping out of school at an early age. [25573/06]
View answerMy Department has already taken a number of actions to address issues of discrimination and victimisation in the education system which are concerned with all students, including Traveller students.
In particular, Section 6 of the Education Act 1998 states that "every person concerned in the implementation of the Act shall have regard to the following objects .... to promote equality of access to and participation in education and to promote the means whereby students may benefit from education".
To assist in the delivery of an inclusive education my Department in 2002 published Guidelines on Traveller Education in Primary Schools and also Guidelines on Traveller Education in Second-Level Schools. These Guidelines address in a very practical manner how Travellers can be fully integrated into our mainstream primary and second level schools. In 2005, the NCCA published Guidelines for Schools "Intercultural Education in the Primary School" which take a cross-curricular approach to interculturalism.
Each school is required to have in place a policy which includes specific measures to deal with bullying behaviour within the framework of an overall school Code of Behaviour and Discipline. Such a code, properly devised and implemented, can be the most influential measure in countering discrimination and victimisation. My Department in its "Guidelines on Countering Bullying Behaviour in Schools" has provided a framework within which individual school management authorities may meet their responsibilities for implementing effective school based policies. These are evaluated during whole school evaluation.
My Department, in 2005, spent over €40m on Traveller specific initiatives in primary and post-primary education. One of the key aims of this would be to retain young Travellers in the education system and minimise early school leaving. This additional €40m is above and beyond what was spent on mainstream primary and post-primary education to which Travellers have an equal entitlement in a manner similar to the settled population. This special resourcing for young Travellers includes the provision of a National Education Officer for Travellers, a Visiting Teacher Service consisting of 40 teachers, over 520 Resource teachers for Travellers in primary schools, the allocation of teaching hours in post-primary schools equivalent to almost 140 whole-time equivalent posts, enhanced capitation for primary and post-primary schools with Traveller pupils.
My Department continues to actively evaluate the provision of education to Travellers and in May this year my Inspectorate published a Survey of Traveller Education Provision in Irish Schools which followed an extensive survey of the participation and inclusion of Traveller pupils in a number of primary and post-primary schools. I am currently awaiting the Report with Recommendations for a Traveller Education Strategy which addresses the full spectrum of lifelong learning from pre-school to adult education.
In addition, my Inspectorate is engaging with the Equality Authority in relation to focusing on equality and diversity issues in schools. Training and documentation on equality and diversity have been made available to all inspectors to assist them in carrying out whole school evaluations.
