The last few years have seen significant educational progress for Travellers, with concerted attempts to bring them into mainstream schooling, but serious problems remain.
The biggest change has been an end to all-Traveller classes in schools, which was regarded as stigmatising by Traveller groups. Only a few schools still have such classes.
The policy was based on the belief that Traveller children suffered from unique educational difficulties which should be tackled away from settled children. Pavee Point claimed "hostility" from settled parents and children played a part in this segregation.
Traveller children are now in mainstream classes and 460 resource teachers are assigned to the primary system to deal with specific difficulties Travellers may have with teachers, the curriculum or at home.
The use of resource teachers has also proved controversial, with Traveller groups saying their children have to go out of classes to talk to them, which could lead to the children being stigmatised.
Almost 6,000 Travellers are in the primary sector, according to the most recently available figures. This is most but not all the Travelling children in this age group, the Department of Education said.
According to Ms Maugie Francis, national education officer for Traveller education with the Department of Education, most Travelling children go on to second level. The big problem is getting them to stay beyond Junior Certificate level, she says.
About 1,000 children are in the second-level system at any one time, but just over 100 usually enter fifth year, the start of the Leaving Cert programme. Fewer than 20 Travellers attend third-level colleges each year.
The task of retaining pupils in the second-level system has replaced the problem of a decade ago, which was keeping them on in the primary system.
Ms Francis says the tradition in Travelling culture is to see 15 as the age formal education ends.
Many parents, she says, see little benefit in their children continuing education after that, although this is changing. Many Travellers also favour early marriages and this can disrupt education, she says.
The Department funds a visiting teaching service, in which teachers act as intermediaries between Travelling communities and the school. They visit halting sites and try to encourage Travellers to stay in school. While many Travellers are enrolled with schools, one of the biggest difficulties is regular attendance. Pavee Point and Mr Fintan Farrell of the Irish Travellers' Movement say schools need to stop trying to deny Travellers their identity. A Pavee Point spokesman says some schools, certainly in the past, tried to take the "Traveller out of the child" and denied the legitimacy of Travellers' culture.
Both groups support a new Travellers' or "intercultural" school curriculum and want the visiting teaching service expanded.