Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
1156. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education the details of the Traveller education budget including the services that it provides; the number of staff that are employed providing these services; if there are vacant posts; the details of all posts in the service; the full-year cost of running this service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41497/22]
View answerMy Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools to support the inclusion of all students, including Traveller students, and to address barriers to students achieving their potential.
Funding for previously segregated Traveller provision has been incorporated into schools and overall funding streams in order to provide supports for Traveller pupils in mainstream schools. Additional pupil capitation for Travellers at a rate of €75 per pupil at primary level, and €213.50 per pupil at post-primary level is provided at a current annual cost of circa €1.3 million.
The DEIS Programme is the Government’s main strategy to tackle educational disadvantage. Schools in the DEIS programme avail of a range of targeted supports, including additional classroom teaching posts, home school community liaison co-ordinator (HSCL) posts, DEIS grant funding and access to the School Completion Programme. In March I announced the largest expansion of the DEIS programme: from September, 322 schools will be included in DEIS for the first time and 39 existing DEIS schools will benefit from increased supports. This will bring the total number of DEIS schools to 1,206 and will mean a €32 million increase in the Department's expenditure on DEIS programme from 2023 - the largest ever increase in the investment in the programme. This expansion extends the additional targeted supports of the DEIS programme to those schools with the highest concentration of students at risk of educational disadvantage.
The refined DEIS identification model captures a greater breadth of disadvantage than the 2017 model, and accounts for severity of disadvantage through the application of a weighted process. Importantly and for the first time, it takes into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by learners who have self-identified as being of Traveller or Roma ethnicity.
The DEIS Plan includes reference to Travellers as a named group at risk of educational disadvantage, and includes specific actions in relation to Traveller education to promote improvements in school attendance and completion. DEIS supports are available for Traveller students that are enrolled in a DEIS school, and schools are advised to target learners at the highest risk of educational disadvantage with the resources allocated.
Among the key supports for Traveller students is Tusla Education Support Service (TESS), comprising the statutory Education Welfare Service, the School Completion Programme (SCP) and the Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) scheme. The three TESS strands work together collaboratively with schools, families and other relevant services to achieve the best educational outcomes for children and young people, and all have as their aims improved school attendance, participation and retention.
I recognise that not all Travellers attend DEIS schools, and additional supports are therefore available in all schools to support students with additional needs. These include special education teachers, special needs assistants and supports provided by the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) and school book grants.
Currently, actions to advance Traveller education outcomes form part of the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS), a cross-departmental strategy that takes a whole-of-government approach to improving the lives of Travellers and Roma in practical and tangible ways, including the aims of achieving equality of education outcomes.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) completed a curriculum audit of Traveller culture and history in the curriculum in 2019, and a NCCA education officer was appointed in September 2020 to progress work arising from this audit.
In addition under the current NTRIS strategy, a Supporting Traveller and Roma (STAR) pilot project in education was established in 2019. It is co-funded by my Department and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Other partners include Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) and Traveller and Roma representative organisations. This pilot project involves over 50 schools in four areas, with the team in each location provided with additional resources to work together with parents, children and young people, schools, Traveller and Roma communities and service providers to address the barriers impacting on attendance, participation and retention in education. The project has been extended to the end of June 2024, and it is intended that the outcomes of this pilot project will help to inform future policy.
The Programme for Government contains a commitment to develop a Traveller Education Strategy. Officials from my Department, will be engaging with officials from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and with representatives of Traveller organisations to advance this strategy.
