JUST 102 Travellers completed the Leaving Cert cycle in 2008 and four out of five Traveller children leave school before completing their second-level education, a new report has found.
The “Teach” report on the progression of Travellers through the Irish education system found that, despite a high rate of enrolment in primary school and a high transfer rate between primary and secondary education, more than 80 per cent of Travellers do not complete their second-level education.
Researcher Dr Niamh Hourigan of the department of sociology in UCC said Travellers face a huge cultural clash with their settled counterparts between the ages of 15 and 19. While the settled community begins to prioritise career at this point, the Traveller community prioritises marriage with the result that many leave school.
The report also found that a main obstacle for the Traveller community was perceived prejudice from the settled community. It found that 20 per cent of interviewees who had participated in the workforce or further education had hidden their Traveller identity.
The report, the first comprehensive study of Traveller progression in Irish society, was commissioned in response to the McCarthy report which recommended the phasing out of 33 Traveller training centres nationally.
The McCarthy report recommended that students from Traveller Training Centres transfer to the broader adult education system. However, the Teach report found that, after the closure of the Traveller training centre in Mullingar in 2008, none of the 52 Travellers attending the centre entered mainstream adult education programmes.
The Teach report has recommended the establishment of new initiatives to combine education with practical work placements.