Education system failing town’s large Traveller population

PROBLEMS of segregation and unemployment in Rathkeale are being exacerbated by an education system failing the town’s 40% Traveller community.

Limerick County Council will today discuss a regeneration initiative for the town whose 1,900 population has a settled/Traveller ratio of 60:40. Local councillors say a town czar needs to be appointed with an all-embracing brief, similar to that given to former Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald, who currently co-ordinates the work of various agencies in Limerick city.

Fianna Fáil councillors Niall Collins and John Griffin suggested the west Limerick town warrants a similar plan because of its special needs and unique demographic make-up.

Local postmaster Mr Griffin said the steady decline of integration between the settled and Traveller communities was clearly illustrated in the local national school.

Mr Griffin said: “We had special classes in the school for transient Traveller children who stayed away for long periods of the school year, as they roamed with their parents. They used to get special tuition according to the education level they were at when they returned to the town. The Department of Education then decided that transient Traveller children were to be put in ‘age-appropriate’ classes with full-time school-goers to help integrate them.”

But he said ‘settled’ students were way ahead academically.

“As a result, the Traveller children could not keep up, and become bored. Classes are being disrupted by the arrival, at different times, of the broken-year Traveller children.”

Mr Griffin said the department ruling was causing greater segregation of the two communities.

He said: “In one class, for instance, in the primary school, there are 28 children — 24 of whom are from the Traveller community and four from the settled community.

“Due to the age-appropriate ruling, it is obvious that many members of the local settled community now send their children to primary schools outside of Rathkeale because they feel their children’s needs are not being met, due to disruption in class by transient Traveller children who attend for short periods, and cannot cope.”

He said the aspiration of the education system to give children a primary, secondary and third-level education cannot be imposed on Rathkeale.

Mr Griffin said: “Rathkeale needs a special, specifically-designed education module as the aspirations of a large section of the community regarding education are very different from the aspirations of the other section of the community.”

He said the Traveller community aspire to get enough education to enable them trade.

“Their needs have to be catered for but they are not now, due to the way the education system is set up.

“The school classes need to be set up to meet the individual needs of Traveller children, irrespective of their age,” he said.

Mr Griffin said the town is now an employment blackspot, as many members of the Traveller community are unemployable due to a standard education module which has failed them.

Mr Griffin said Government agencies including the Departments of Justice, Social Welfare, Environment and the Health Service Executive all deploy additional resources to the town.

He said: “However, even with these additional resources, it does not work as there is no coordination.”

He said it is time for a specially formulated Rathkeale regeneration initiative.