Mr. Stephen O'Connor:

It is a great pleasure to be here today to talk on behalf of the City of Dublin Education and Training Board about our service. According to the 2016 census, 57.2% of male Travellers had only primary school education, a figure four times higher than the general population. Only 13% of Traveller girls completed second level education whereas for the settled community the figure is 69%. Some 1% of Travellers progressed to third level education and they made up just 0.1% of the total student body. These are just some of the stark statistics which tell a story of generational, institutionalised disadvantage, the result of years of failed policies and neglect. In this short submission, I would like to highlight just one important cause of this lamentable situation, namely, the issue of cultural identity and how it acts as a major barrier to the progress of our Traveller learners.

In 2010, a report by Maria Campbell and Niamh Hourigan identified the depth of prejudice Travellers encounter daily as a major contributory factor to members of the Travelling community not realising their potential as learners. They further contended that "mainstream educational and workplace contexts are dominated by the values, behaviours and authority structures of the settled community". In other words, for Travellers, school is a construct of the settled community, owing little to their lived experiences and their cultural norms. Moreover, the lack of job opportunities for Travellers removes a compelling motive for pursuing an educational pathway. As the report goes on to observe, Travellers feel an enormous stigma attached to their cultural identity, and 20% of the Travellers spoken to as part of the study who had participated in the workforce or further education had hidden their Traveller identity from co-workers or fellow students.

In response to this, the CDETB educational service to prisons has put in place a number of simple measures which are designed to promote a more culturally responsive environment within our prison education centres. To underpin this work, we have asked a teacher within each centre to become a Traveller champion, to liaise with and advise head teachers on Traveller issues, to identify individual needs, and actively to encourage Travellers to attend classes. We have also asked a teacher to lead and co-ordinate our efforts across the service.

If we are to make a real impact in improved educational outcomes for Travellers in our prisons, we must start with ourselves as providers. As has been pointed out to us by the representatives of the Travelling community and by academic research on many occasions, those who deliver our services themselves need to engage in training and education so they can recognise those cultural barriers which impact on the educational progression of Traveller learners. We must listen to our learners and learn from those who have experienced the reality of discrimination and inequality at first hand, and we must question our own values and beliefs.

In this respect, in June 2019, with the support of the Travellers in Prison Initiative, three CDETB teachers undertook a two-day introduction to equality and anti-discrimination issues delivered by Maynooth University. The course concentrated on themes such as prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, values and ideologies of superiority and their role in creating and replicating inequality. The course also looked at the legislative frameworks and key organisations relating to equality in Ireland.

Finally, our staff explored the possibilities of addressing inequality as teachers in the prison system. We have also been instrumental in inviting various Traveller organisations into our education centres, and we have learned much about what we need to do to further educational progress for our Traveller learners. Through our work with the Travellers in Prison Initiative, we have been active in promoting Traveller culture within our centres. Traveller Pride weeks have included music performances by the legendary Finbar Furey, exhibitions of the traditional art of tin smithing, and local exhibitions and displays of art, photography and craft work celebrating Traveller culture. The purpose of these events is to demonstrate that Traveller culture is valued within our centres. In this respect, we have observed not only an increased level of pride expressed by Traveller learners but an increased interest in Traveller culture among those learners from a settled background.

Within our curriculum, we are endeavouring to ensure the needs of Travellers are recognised and catered for. In Wheatfield Prison, for instance, we deliver the Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, level three module on challenging discrimination to facilitate understanding of bias, prejudice and discrimination towards various sections of society, including the Travelling community. In addition, we use materials that reflect Traveller culture in classes. In Cloverhill Prison, for example, these range from books for literacy students by Ann Marie Collins to recordings for use in the music class by artists such as Johnny Doran. During 2020 and 2021, our drama teacher in Arbour Hill and a group of students, including Travellers, devised a play based on Traveller culture and included use of the Cant-Gammon language in the script.

Literacy work is a key part of our educational service to prisons, and a range of approaches is employed for our adult learners, including one-to-one teaching, group work, Toe by Toe, Storybook Mums and Dads and the use of an interactive literacy package developed by our own teachers, which combines literacy and numeracy work with the development of digital skills. Again, adult literacy work is integrated in all parts of the curriculum.

In this short presentation, it has been my intention to identify issues relating to cultural identity that act as a barrier to the educational progress of our Traveller learners. It has not been to give the impression our delivery is perfect or that this work will, in itself, create educational equality for Travellers. It is, however, a clear statement that without considerable efforts to recognise the value of Traveller identity in our schools, colleges and centres, reaching the goal of educational equality for all our Traveller citizens will be very difficult indeed.