Ms Maria Joyce:

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on Traveller education with reference to inequality, the digital divide and the impact of reduced timetables. At the outset, I also congratulate Tracey Reilly on her first class honours degree. I also congratulate my nephew, David Joyce, who received first class honours in his master's last week. This shows that when Travellers are given the education opportunities, they do not just get through it but excel.

I am Maria Joyce, co-ordinator with the National Traveller Women’s Forum, the national network of Traveller women’s organisations. I will start by rejecting any perception that Travellers have no interest in education. We have an interest and an ambition, especially for our children. As a community we also have a collective experience of discriminatory and segregated education provision, which took many forms both formal and informal, and that fundamentally was underpinned by racism. This negative legacy of segregation remains for Traveller parents and there continue to be low expectations of Traveller learners, as well as racism within the education system, which has a detrimental impact on participation in and outcomes from education for Traveller children.

Systemic change is required and that needs to be set out in the promised Traveller education strategy. That strategy needs to set out a clear vision for Traveller education that is underpinned by equality. Resources, targets and monitorable actions are also needed.

In the context of the current pandemic and school closures over the past two academic years, there is a real risk of deepening educational disadvantage among Travellers. School closures and online learning were a challenging disruption for Traveller learners. There were great expectations that everything could be moved online and that every child must have access to Wi-Fi and equipment or at the very least a phone. Many Traveller families had limited or in most cases a complete lack of IT equipment necessary to stay connected with school and college and to submit work. In our submission to the committee, we outline recommendations including the need for targeted resources, monitoring those resources for impact and the equitable roll-out of the national broadband strategy.

Reduced timetables are still a major concern for us. This system is operating without any guidelines or monitoring. The Department of Education has developed guidelines and plans to circulate them to schools in September 2021 as far as we are aware. We need those guidelines to be rolled out, which should be done by way of a departmental circular. We have continually highlighted that the guidelines must be accompanied by strict timelines and clear processes. Supports must be put in place and rigorous monitoring will be needed to ensure that poor practice with reduced timetables is eradicated. The inspectorate should also play a role and that monitoring. Children have a right to an education and reduced timetables deny them that right. The reduction of hours in school is often the wrong response to the needs of children when an increase in supports is often what is required.

It is important to acknowledge the achievements of Travellers who have progressed through to higher education. There are Travellers who are working in and making contributions to education at policy level and in teaching. That number is set to increase in coming years. As Ms Reilly has said, the specific inclusion of Travellers in the new equity of access plan and the naming of Travellers as a target group in all access initiatives would be crucial developments.

We welcome this opportunity to give input to the committee today but it is frustrating to look back at the recommendations in the 2019 reports of the Joint Committee on Education and Skills, which have not been progressed as those present who sat on that committee are aware.

I will finish with a question for the committee members. What will they do to ensure we are not back again in two years' time having the same discussion?