Written answers
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Department of Education and Science
Traveller Education
2:00 pm
Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 7: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to the damaging impact of her decision to withdraw resource and visiting Traveller teachers on progress that has been made on raising education standards among Travellers; if she will consider the case of a school (details supplied) in Dublin 11 which will suffer a major detrimental effect due to the loss of three such teachers and if, in view of the large concentration of Traveller children in this school and the likely impact on them and all other pupils in the school, if she will review the decision on this case. [4324/11]
Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the Government has taken a decision to provide educational teaching supports to Traveller students on the same basis as other students in schools. This means that Traveller students who require additional tuition will receive this tuition through the existing learning support provision in schools.
All schools will be advised to select students for learning support on the basis of priority of need. The principle of "individual educational need" rather than "Traveller identity" is central to The Report and Recommendations for a Traveller Education Strategy and the key criterion underlying the recommendations of the report for the provision of additional resources to all children, including Traveller children.
Resource Teacher for Traveller posts will be withdrawn, effective from September 2011. It is intended that alleviation measures will be provided for schools with high concentrations of Traveller children and that schools will shortly be advised of the alleviation measures which will apply and of the qualifying criteria.
My Department will advise all schools of their staffing allocation in advance of the next school year. With regard to the Visiting Teachers Service for Travellers, the decision to remove the Visiting Teachers Service for Travellers is just one of a range of measures, included in the National Recovery Plan 2011 to 2014, to secure some â¬24m in savings in the 2011/2012 school year. The service will therefore be discontinued with effect from 31 August 2011. At present there are 41 posts in this service. Until September 2009 the Visiting Teachers Service for Travellers was managed directly by the Regional Office Directorate within my Department. In September 2009 the Service was transferred to the National Education Welfare Board to be integrated with existing school support services.
The set of measures included in the National Recovery Plan 2011 to 2014 impacts on every sector of the public service and will unquestionably lead to significant challenges for schools as well as the Department in the coming years. The major challenge will undoubtedly be to seek improved outcomes for children with fewer resources prioritising available resources to maximum effect across the education sector to enhance educational outcomes for all including Traveller children and adults.
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