Education committee has not met for six months

  • 15 March 2006
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An education committee set up to evaluate policies on educational disadvantage by the Department of Education has not met for six months and has no members at present. Traveller groups say this is delaying the Traveller Education Strategy, which will now most likely not be in place for the new school year. Scott Millar reports

Education policy reforms, aimed at aiding Travellers and other educationally disadvantaged groups, have been stalled for more than six months due to a failure by Mary Hanafin, Minister for Education, to establish the statutory committee with responsibility in this area. This failure is holding up the Traveller Education Strategy 2005, which has to be considered by the committee. The Educational Disadvantage Committee (EDC) was constituted in 2002 with 19 experts on educational disadvantage from a variety of disciplines. Under the 1998 Education Act new policies on educational disadvantage from the Department of Education must be evaluated in terms of budgetary timeframes and institutional responsibilities by the EDC before they can be implemented by the Minister.

However the last EDC, under the chairmanship of Professor Aine Hyland, issued its final report in August 2005 and then dissolved itself after completing a three-year term. Since then, the Department of Education has been unable to seek the implementation of new policy packages seeking to deal with the educationally disadvantaged.

The Department's failure to establish a statutory required committee emerged following a lobbying campaign by Traveller representative groups seeking the implementation of the Traveller Education Strategy 2005.

The failure has been branded by Aine Hyland, vice president of UCC and former chairman of the Educational Disadvantage Committee as "Ridiculous. If there is a statutory need for this committee it could be reconstituted tomorrow by the stroke of a pen. I can't believe the Traveller Strategy is being held up by this." Damien Walshe, an Education Worker with the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM), said: "The Strategy has gone through the lengthy negotiations process with the joint working group on Traveller education which encompassed 18 months of hard work with negotiations with Traveller groups around the country, the social inclusion department, teachers unions and others. Then it had to go to the advisory committee on Traveller education and it passed it in the middle of October. We were told that the procedure is then for the strategy to go to the EDC.

"We have since been informed that the EDC has not been reconstituted, which means that the detailed programme policy outlined in the Education Strategy has not even been considered by the Minister. It also throws into doubt whether there will be any implementation of the strategy for the coming academic year."

The level of educational disadvantage within the Traveller community was highlighted in a Chief Inspectors of School report published last year. Following a survey of 32 primary schools, the report found: "the levels of achievement of Traveller pupils were not on a par with their non-Traveller peers. An analysis of standardised test results showed that the measured achievement levels of approximately half the group surveyed were below the 10th percentile in English and Mathematics." The standardised test result figures were found to be comparable with the norm for the general Irish population in the 1930s.

The new Traveller Education Strategy focuses on equality and inclusiveness in the provision of education to young members of the Traveller community. The 30-page report outlines three core approaches: equality of access; equality of Traveller participation in school activities, free from discrimination because of their identity; and the main one, equality of outcome. The strategy seeks to promote Traveller participation in mainstream educational structures. This would see a continuance of a trend in government policy in the area that has sought to end the existence of parallel educational institutions such as Traveller-only primary schools. There is only one remaining Traveller-only primary school, St Kieran's in Bray. However the ITM has found that closing Traveller-only educational institutions has not ended the segregationist approach to education, with some schools using the provision of Traveller resource teachers to effectively establish separate classes for Traveller children.

Walshe said: "Children are being withdrawn from classes and being given what the department describes as "low-level tasks". That is department code for instead of doing Maths or Irish they are doing stuff like colouring or story telling. How can you improve kids attainment when they are not being taught the core subjects."

In the 2003/2004 school year, the most recent figures available, €47.5 million was spent on Traveller education. This figure is roughly a 20 per cent increase from 1999/2000.

In a statement the Department of Education said: "The Minister is expecting to receive shortly a Report on the Recommendations for Traveller Education Strategy. The report will provide me with advice and guidance on how best to continue to cater and improve the education provision for the Traveller community.

"With regard to representation on the Educational Disadvantage Committee, my Department has written to the education partners seeking their views on the composition and future work of the committee. When all of these have been received and considered I will appoint members to the new committee."

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