Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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480. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the actions that her Department has taken to implement the relevant recommendations from the Joint Committee on Key Issues Affecting the Traveller Community report issued in November 2021. [14001/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I am aware of the report and recommendations from the Joint Committee on Key Issues Affecting the Traveller Community report, which issued in November 2021. Officials from my Department engaged with the Joint Oireachtas Committee with regard to education matters.

With regard to the recommendations pertaining to my Department, my Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools to ensure that all students have their educational needs met, to support the inclusion of all students, including Traveller students, and to address barriers to students achieving their potential.

National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy

The National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS) provides a framework for action on Traveller and Roma issues. Actions to advance Traveller education outcomes form part of this Strategy. My Department participated in the development of the NTRIS, which contains over 30 education-related actions, from early years to further and higher education, and officials will be working with the Department of Further and Higher Education Research Innovation and Science, and engaging with and supporting the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in its review of the Strategy and development of the next iteration of the Strategy as committed to in the Programme for Government. Officials from my Department attend the NTRIS Plenary Steering Group meetings in addition to the NTRIS Education subgroup, which meet regularly throughout the year.

DEIS - Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools

DEIS is the main policy instrument of my Department to tackle educational disadvantage at school level. Schools in the DEIS programme avail of a range of targeted supports aimed at tackling educational disadvantage, including additional classroom teaching posts, home school community liaison coordinator posts, DEIS grant funding and access to the School Completion Programme. The DEIS Plan includes specific actions in relation to Traveller and Roma education to promote improvements in school attendance and completion.

Budget 2022 has allocated the largest-ever increase in funding for the DEIS programme, providing for an additional allocation of €18 million in 2022 and rising to an additional €32 million in 2023. This means that by 2023 my Department will target over €180 million at addressing educational disadvantage through the DEIS programme, an increase of 20%. On 9 March this year, I announced a major expansion of the programme, with the inclusion of an additional 310 schools and the reclassification of an additional 37 existing DEIS schools, making these eligible for increased supports.

The refined DEIS identification model captures a greater breadth of disadvantage than the earlier model. Importantly, it takes into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by Traveller and Roma learners, as well as of students residing in direct provision or emergency homeless accommodation. Thus, the expansion has extended the additional targeted supports of the DEIS programme to those schools serving high concentrations of students at risk of educational disadvantage ensuring that the largest investment to date in the DEIS programme is being provided to those schools most in need.

Wellbeing in schools

The Department’s Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice 2019 sets out the ambition and vision of the Department that the promotion of wellbeing will be at the core of the ethos of every school and centre for education in Ireland. It 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 to supporting wellbeing, an approach that has been found internationally to produce a wide range of educational and social benefits, including increased inclusion, greater social cohesion, increased social capital and improvements to mental health.

Schools are encouraged to use a reflective, school self-evaluation approach to identify and prioritise the needs of their own school community in relation to the promotion of wellbeing and mental health, and to respond to meeting those needs.

Anti-Bullying Measures

The 2013 Action Plan on Bullying sets out my Department's approach to tackling bullying and promoting an anti-bullying culture in schools. On 16 February, I announced the establishment of a new Steering Committee to review the 2013 Action Plan on Bullying and develop a new Action Plan. This review will take account of the significant developments and relevant research since the action plan was published.

This includes research published last week by DCU and commissioned by my Department in line with NTRIS actions on the effectiveness of the Department’s anti-bullying procedures on Traveller and Roma experiences in the school system. It is entitled A study into the effectiveness of the Anti-Bullying Procedures on Traveller and Roma pupils’ experiences in the school system, and is available here:

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, published last August. The anti-bullying procedures for primary and post-primary schools will also be reviewed and updated in parallel with this work.

Traveller Culture and History

I am fully supportive of measures to improve educational outcomes for Travellers, which includes ensuring that the school setting is a more welcoming environment. Developing knowledge and understanding of Traveller culture and history in schools will help build a recognition of the important value of Traveller culture and history to this country and help to improve a sense of belonging for Traveller children in schools. 

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) published an audit of Traveller culture and history in the curriculum in 2019, which has provided the basis for further work in this area which is being progressed. A full-time Education Officer was appointed in September, 2020 to progress the next steps which include:

- identifying existing initiatives and supports across the three education sectors (early childhood, primary and post-primary) and exploring how they can be further enhanced, supported and possibly replicated; - identifying existing resources and materials and exploring the kinds of new support material and resources that need developing;

- working directly with early childhood settings and schools to identify good practice underpinned by principles of inclusion, intercultural education, and learning about Traveller history and culture.

An expert advisory group has been established by the NCCA, which includes representatives and members of the Traveller community to inform the work being carried out by NCCA.