In from the margins

Last December it was announced that a new capitation payment will be made to second-level schools as an incentive to encourage Traveller children to stay on at school. The Minister for Education and Science, Micheal Martin, says that the new payment forms part of a wider effort in relation to Traveller education and "signals the Government's intention to comprehensively address the educational concerns of one of the most educationally disadvantaged groups in the country."

Under the new payment, £336 will be paid to second-level schools for every enrolled Traveller child. It's hoped that the payment, similar to payments already made at primary level, will help schools make it possible for Traveller children and their families to attend and enjoy school.

"It's estimated that Traveller children make up a significant proportion of the 900 or so children who fail to transfer each year from primary to post-primary school," Martin explains. Roughly 500 Travellers of second-level schooling age currently attend mainstream schools. The Government is determined, he says, to help schools and families to increase this number.

"This new capitation payment is one element of the action that is needed," says the Minister. Schools will also get 1.5 extra hours per week for each Traveller child they enroll.

Earlier this month, in a separate initiative launched by the Minister, a special scheme to use information technology (IT) in Traveller education centres was announced. Costing roughly £50,000 this year, the initiative is to be used to help children who are being taught by visiting teachers for Travellers. It's hoped that the IT equipment will help visiting teachers reach more children in the Travelling community.

"I believe that technology can help the teachers and children involved to develop the service even further," Martin says.

Although the initiatives are welcome, it's still not clear how far they will go to effect change. Fintan Farrell, co-ordinator of the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM), welcomes the extra provision but, he says, "we are still disappointed that the Visiting Teachers for Travellers Scheme was not extended nationwide." This scheme was one of the recommendations of the 1995 Task Force Report, he points out, and has been one of the key areas of support for Travellers to date.

However, according to a department source, the scheme, which currently comprises 20 visiting teachers, will be extended to 30 in a month or two. This will create the national service that the ITM has been seeking.

Farrell welcomes the capitation money, but says that "it's difficult to automatically see how Traveller children will benefit. It cannot be the only means for making the school environment a place where Traveller children will feel welcome. On its own it won't achieve anything."

The ITM is delighted at the establishment by the Department of the Advisory Committee on Traveller Education. However, says Farrell, "this needs to be very dynamic. There's a lot of work to be done." The committee, which was announced on December 9th last, has had one meeting so far. It will meet again on Wednesday, February 24th.

One of the hopes of the ITM is the development of an intercultural curriculum which would help build schools which are free of "racism." Farrell believes that schools "need to be more integrated. Work needs to be done with all the staff in the schools so that they are more sensitive around Travellers present in their schools." The ITM has been in discussion with the Department's Curriculum Development Unit "trying to look at integrating Traveller issues into the curriculum." However, the main activity of the ITM, Farrell explains, has been to lobby for the setting up of the advisory committee, which, it is hoped, will ultimately establish a more comprehensive approach.

Fr Peter McVerry writes in the current ASTI education journal: "We are in a country run by the privileged for the benefit of the privileged and everyone knows it except the privileged. Positive discrimination in favour of the disadvantaged must be continually demanded but should realistically not be expected," he says.

The recently-launched report of Dublin's Southside Partnership Travellers' Interest Group (TIG) says: "In the long run, Traveller children lose out on choice and the whole education system fails to provide its clients with an intercultural education which would better prepare them for an intercultural society."

Kathy Bradley is education co-ordinator with Southside Partnership. "What I'd like to see is the report acted on," she says.

Some schools have already set an example. Tim Geraghty, principal of St Tiernan's Community School in Balally, Dundrum, Co Dublin, believes it's important that "the culture of the Travellers is accepted and validated within the curriculum. There's a need for additional focused resources for Traveller children within the school to make sure that there is that focus and that they become part of the school and succeed at school life."

Michael Denny, principal of Loreto Secondary School in Bray, Co Wicklow, where Traveller children are also in attendance, says: "They integrate very well and they've added a different dimension to the school in terms of understanding and respecting other cultures."

According to Southside Partnership's TIG report, there are 70 Travellers in the 12- to 15-year-old age group in the Dun Laoghaire area. "Of these, we have 11 in mainstream second level and another 10 in Traveller-only education," says Sara Boyce, community development worker with Travellers at the Southside Partnership. The report says that Travelleronly services can act as a safety valve for the mainstream education system, allowing it to avoid its responsibility.

Pat Corcoran, a visiting teacher for Travellers in the Ballyfermot area of Dublin, believes that attitudes are changing. "I haven't experienced a refusal from a second-level school to accept a Traveller child this year or last year. That's a tremendous advance on what the experience would have been. That's the yardstick, that's what you have to go by."

He lists a range of Dublin schools attended by Travellers, including Cabinteely Community School, Ringsend Technical Institute, Loreto Abbey in Dalkey, St Anne's Secondary School in Milltown and Rockford Manor in Blackrock.