Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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112. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in view of the recommendation of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, if she will provide for the effective implementation of 'reduced timetable' guidelines and measures to prevent their disproportionate use on Traveller children; and when she will publish Tusla’s first, second and third quarter 2022 reduced-day outcome reports. [10570/23]

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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113. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will outline the specific actions undertaken to ensure Traveller parents are aware of the reduced-day guidelines. [10571/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 112 and 113 together.

A commitment was made under the Programme for Government to ensure robust data collection on the use of reduced school days and to further ensure that reduced school days are only used in a manner that is limited, appropriate and absolutely necessary.

My Department issued guidelines to schools on reduced school days in September 2021 which came into effect from 1st January 2022. My Department is working closely with Tusla Education Support Service and the National Council for Special Education to ensure that all students are supported to the greatest extent possible, to attend for the full school day.

It is my intention to publish a report on the use of reduced school days shortly.

Officials from my Department have ongoing engagement with Traveller Representative organisations and this engagement will continue.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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114. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when she will launch the consultation on the Traveller Education Strategy; and in view of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, how she will ensure such measures are adequately resourced. [10572/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I am committed to ensuring that actions to improve educational outcomes for Travellers are advanced in line with relevant Programme for Government commitments, including the commitment to develop a National Traveller Education Strategy. Work is progressing to advance this, and there is a range of work currently underway that will inform its development, including:

- Work by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to support teaching and learning of Traveller history and culture, which follows the 2019 audit of the curriculum in respect of Traveller culture and history. A research report, developed in collaboration with an expert group comprising members of the Traveller community and Traveller representatives, was published by the NCCA on 27 February. The report aims to capture what the Traveller community identifies as being key aspects of their culture and history, and important from a curriculum perspective.

- Alongside this work, the NCCA has commenced a review of the Intercultural Guidelines for primary and post-primary schools, in order to support the further integration of intercultural education in the curriculum;

- The refined DEIS identification model I announced in March last year, which includes components to reflect the educational disadvantage experienced by students who have self-identified as Traveller or Roma;

- A pilot project Supporting Traveller and Roma (STAR) which is underway in four areas (Galway, Wexford, Dublin and Cork), with the aim of addressing the barriers impacting on Traveller and Roma attendance, participation and retention in education; - An independent assessment STAR is due to commence this year in line with Programme for Government commitments. A Research Advisory Board with Traveller representation is also being established to support the evaluation;

- Creation of a new post in the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) with a dual role in overseeing, developing and supporting CPD in social inclusion and in DEIS;

- Establishment of 10 new Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) coordinator posts in 14 non-DEIS post-primary schools with high numbers of Traveller and Roma students under the Dormant Accounts Fund. HSCL coordinators have access to funding for initiatives to encourage improvements in school attendance, retention and progression for Traveller and Roma students, and funding is provided for supports to ensure the effectiveness of the HSCL role in working with Traveller and Roma families.

Officials from my Department, together with officials from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, engage on an ongoing basis with Traveller representative organisations, and this engagement will continue in the context of development of the Traveller Education Strategy.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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115. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when she will publish the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment's Traveller Culture and Heritage research report. [10573/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to advise the Deputy that the NCCA has this week published its research report on Traveller Culture and History in the curriculum. The report is available on www.ncca.ie. 

This report aims to provide an important resource to support teachers, practitioners and students in understanding and appreciating Traveller culture and history. Funding was provided by my Department to enable the appointment of a full-time NCCA Education Officer in September, 2020 to undertake this work. The NCCA's work has been supported and informed by an expert group which has advised on various aspects of Traveller culture and history including, for example, music, art and language. 

In order to augment the research report and illustrate how it can support teaching and learning, the NCCA will now work to gather examples of practice in teaching and learning about aspects of Traveller culture and history contained within the report.

The Deputy may wish to note that, alongside this work, the NCCA has commenced a review of the Intercultural Guidelines for primary and post-primary schools, in order to support the further integration of intercultural education in the curriculum. 

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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116. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in follow-up to the recommendation of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, if she will publish education-related data disaggregated by ethnic origin. [10574/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department’s electronic databases, POD (Primary Online Database) and P-POD (Post-primary Online Database), hold data on all primary and post-primary school pupils, including their name, address, PPSN, date of birth and nationality. On an optional basis and requiring written consent from a parent/guardian, P-POD also contains data on students’ mother tongue and both databases contain information on ethnic/cultural background. Questions on ethnic/cultural background are non-compulsory and based on voluntary self-identification. Written consent from a parent/guardian is required.

Questions about ethnic/cultural background were developed in consultation with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and are based on the ethnic/cultural categories included in the Census of Population since 2011.

Specifically, POD and P-POD ethnic/cultural background data is collected using the following categories:

- White Irish

- Irish Traveller

- Roma

- Any other White Background

- Black or Black Irish - African

- Black or Black Irish - any other Black background

- Asian or Asian Irish - Chinese

- Asian or Asian Irish - any other Asian background

- Other (inc. mixed background)

There is a Programme for Government commitment to ensure robust data collection on the use of reduced timetables. The new Guidelines for the use of Reduced School Days in Schools came into effect on 1 January 2022, and these include the requirement for schools to notify Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) of the use of all reduced school day arrangements. The process of notifying TESS involves a notification form, which provides the option to include the student’s ethnic background; the question is optional and written consent from the parent/guardian is required to collect the information. My Department intends to publish a report on reduced school days data shortly.