Parents who held a protest last week over the proposed enrolment of Traveller children at an east Galway national school want the school management to put in place a more structured policy on the enrolment of Travellers.
Classrooms have remained empty at St Joseph's National School, at Ballinruane, Menlough, since Wednesday because of objections to plans to enrol nine Traveller children. The parents continued to keep their children at home on Friday even though the Traveller families had moved out of the area the previous evening.
The Traveller families, who are all Wards and include a widowed mother of nine, moved as a result of the boycott and have already succeeded in getting their children into school in Tuam. They had moved to Galway at the start of the summer from Dunleer, Co Louth, and were disappointed at the reaction of parents as the children had been attending school in Louth without any problems.
Negotiations are continuing between the school's board of management, the Department of Education and the parents, who want a clear policy on the enrolment of Travellers. The parents are concerned about the impact such a disproportionately high ratio of Traveller pupils would have had on the school if the Ward children were accepted.
Mr Ulick Burke, an East Galway TD, said that the enrolment of the Traveller children at Ballinruane had not been properly thought out and appropriate preparatory work had not been done. "The impact on the existing students would be difficult enough to cater for, but the school also does not have the usual back-up services for the disadvantaged, such as remedial teachers and resources."
Mr Burke said he hoped the matter would be satisfactorily resolved by continued negotiation between the parents and the school management. It was unfortunate that the situation had arisen in the way it did, he added.
Mr Fintan Farrell, of the Irish Traveller Movement, has called on the local community of Ballinruane to bring sense to the situation and call off the boycott.