Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

It was good to hear that the Minister will support the Bill. I listened intently to the point she made about what has happened since 2018 and about the audit completed and published in 2019. I was not aware of that. I have not seen that report. Maybe it went into committee and was discussed there but I think it must be brought into the Dáil or the education committee to discuss the issues.

Travellers, as Ireland's most long-term disadvantaged group, experience gross disparities compared to the general populace in terms of educational attainment. That is still the case even though the Education (Admission to Schools) Act, the student and parent charter and the well-being policy have been brought in. The Bill introduced by the former Senator, Colette Kelleher, sought to integrate Traveller culture into the curriculum. Travellers are over 50 times more likely to leave school without a leaving certificate in comparison to non-Travellers and only 9% of 25- to 35-year-old Travellers have completed second level education, compared to 86% nationally. Including Traveller culture and history in the curriculums of Irish schools with have a transformative effect on young Travellers' relationship with the education system, recognising and validating their distinct culture and helping to work against feelings of exclusion and related high drop-out rates and towards greater levels of educational attainment.

As Deputy Pringle mentioned, the potential for the recognition of minority culture within a school curriculum to improve the education attainment of minority students was demonstrated by the Te Kotahitanga project in New Zealand, where the adoption of a Maori-centred education for over 1,000 students in selected schools significantly increased the retention rates and academic results of participants relative to Maori students in other schools and helped to encourage the New Zealand Government to adopt an education policy at a national level that gives a central place to the Maori culture.

The former Senator, Colette Kelleher, said her Bill would:

amend sections 9 and 30 of the Education Act 1998 to [state] that the Minister shall prescribe that Traveller culture and history is taught in recognised Irish schools. Given that previous Government education strategies regarding the Traveller community did not culminate in an implementation plan, [such as] the 2006 Traveller education strategy, the adoption of legislation by the Oireachtas is the best way [Senator Kelleher said] to ensure that the Department of Education ... honours its commitment to develop primary and post-primary curricula which include Traveller culture and history as mandatory elements of primary and second-level education.

[...]

[This Bill will] also allow the Minister to consult with representative bodies, [such as] the Irish Traveller Movement and other Traveller community groups[.]

I welcome the initiatives brought in to date but this Bill will introduce Traveller culture into the curriculum in all its forms, including music and history, and bring teachers, class, parents and other students into that culture.

The yellow flag initiative in October 2019, before the lost year of Covid, involved a presentation in the Dáil with five schools from Dublin, Cork and, I think, Kerry. There were cultural initiatives and activities to develop recognition of different cultures in communities. That is a good initiative but has not been broadened out enough. Only a certain number of schools do it. It is important that the Minister looks at bringing in that education part in the curriculum.

I remember going to school in the blackboard days when the paper was put up on the blackboard where mammy was at home with dinner ready waiting for daddy to come home. The culture was changed by changing that image of what was expected of the mother. It is important a clear effort is made to bring in that cultural aspect to our curriculum in the education system.

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