Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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325. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she has considered having Traveller culture weeks, disability awareness weeks and socio-economic discrimination awareness weeks in schools around the country [60270/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The role of the school is to provide an appropriate education for all its pupils and having a stable, secure learning environment is an essential requirement to achieve this goal. My Department provides a range of programmes and initiatives to support schools to provide an inclusive learning environment for all learners.

My Department's ‘Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice (2019)' acknowledges that schools provide opportunities to develop friendships and to respectfully encounter diversity and access support structures. The policy promotes the provision of a whole-school approach at both primary and post-primary level to supporting wellbeing, an approach that has been found internationally to produce a wide range of educational and social benefits for individual children and young people, including increased inclusion, greater social cohesion, increased social capital and improvements to mental health.

The Action Plan on Bullying, published in January 2013, sets out my Department's approach to tackling bullying and promoting an anti-bullying culture in schools. My Department is currently commencing a review of the Department’s 2013 Action Plan on Bullying and the 2013 Anti-bullying Procedures for Primary and Post-primary Schools. This review will take account of developments and relevant research, since the action plan and procedures were published in 2013. The review will also give detailed consideration to the recommendations contained in the Oireachtas Joint Committee Report on School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health.

My Department will continue to address the areas of anti-racism, identity-based bullying and cultural awareness through a suite of supports including the recently revised Stay Safe Programme and the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to teachers at Primary and Post-Primary level and in initial teacher education. It will ensure that such programmes enable teachers to deal with teaching and learning needs of all students from all cultural backgrounds and provide support for pedagogical practices that promote inclusion.

In addition, curriculum at both primary and post-primary aims to foster inclusivity where equality and diversity are promoted. The Primary Curriculum acknowledges the importance of a balanced and informed awareness of the diversity of peoples and environments in the world. Such an awareness helps children to understand the world and contributes to their personal and social development as citizens of a global community. The curriculum promotes tolerance and respect for diversity in both the school and the community. The Social Personal and Health Education Curriculum (SPHE) supports students learning in the areas of inclusion, diversity and counter racism. The SPHE content is complemented by the work carried out in social, environmental and scientific education (SESE) at primary SESE enables the child to live as an informed and caring member of local and wider communities.

Under the Framework for Junior Cycle, there are twenty four statements of learning which should inform the programme designed by all schools. One of these statements is: (The student) appreciates and respects how diverse values, beliefs and traditions have contributed to the communities and culture in which she/he lives. This junior cycle short course in CSPE focuses on supporting students in become active citizens through their learning in three strands: Rights and responsibilities, Global citizenship, and Exploring democracy.

As part of the Departments ongoing curricular reform consideration of issues in relation to inclusivity/diversity etc. will be considered as part of the ongoing reviews in relation to the primary curriculum and senior cycle at post-primary.