Twenty five percent of Gypsy and Traveller children in England and Wales are not enrolled in education and for those that do attend school, educational attainment is lower than for any other ethnic group. In 2012, only 25% of Gypsy and Traveller primary school leavers reached minimum expectations in English and Maths, compared to 74% of the general school population. At secondary level only 12% of Gypsy and Traveller pupils achieved 5 good GCSEs compared to 58.2% for all pupils.
This grim array of statistics will come as little surprise to teachers up and down the countries, who have encountered the challenges of working with Gypsy and Irish Traveller children. Many teachers have also encountered the added difficulty of communicating with parents of Traveller children who have low levels of literacy themselves.
Recent developments offer little hope in the battle to tackle illiteracy within the Travelling community. Since local authority spending cuts got underway in 2010, there has been a 27% reduction in Traveller education staff in England, with many Traveller education teams being ‘deleted’ all together by councils.
With poor educational attainment comes a reduction in life opportunities and an increase in the chances of imprisonment. According to the HM Inspectorate of Prisons, Gypsies and Irish Travellers make up a staggering 5% of the Category B prison population nationally.
It is in this depressing context that a reading initiative by the Traveller Project at the Irish Chaplaincy in Britain has recently been
launched.
‘Across the 130 plus prisons we’ve seen a huge interest in learning to read amongst Traveller prisoners’, says Conn Mac Gabhann, Manager of the Traveller Project. ‘In the bureaucracy of a prison, where every aspect of your life is regulated by rules and form-filling, Travellers see the enormous value of being able to read – many realising this for the first time.’
‘Working with the Shannon Trust whose aim is to ‘make every prisoner a reader,’ we’ve launched a campaign throughout the prison estate, to ensure that this aim includes every Traveller in custody. The upsurge in participation has been marked. In a prison we visited last week 40% of the Traveller population were either Toe by Toe learners or mentors.’
‘Reading schemes such as the The Shannon Trust Reading Plan (AKA Toe by Toe) have a unique appeal because the informal, one-toone approach doesn’t recall the negative experiences many Travellers have had in formal classroom settings. After years of disaffection with education, many Travellers have had quite remarkable success with Toe by Toe’.
As the number of Travellers in prison doing courses such as the Shannon Trust Reading Plan increases, so too does the demand for interesting reading books. The Traveller Project has put together a short series of reading books for Travelling people who are just starting to read books.
The first book, ‘A Traveller’s Home’ written by Mac Gabhann and illustrated by Dublin artist, Niamh Merc., tells the story of John, a Dublin Traveller and wannabe cowboy.
The second book ‘We Are Travellers’ was written by Joe Cottrell-Boyce, and is a factual introduction to the history and culture of English Gypsies and Irish Travellers.
‘It’s important to remember that Traveller men and women want to read interesting stories.’ MacGabhann stresses. ‘No adult really wants to read a children’s book. These books are interesting and they are relevant to Travellers’ lives.’
‘There’s a quiet educational revolution happening in prison. Travellers are learning to read because they want to learn and perhaps for the first time they are learning in a way that suits them. Ironically, the interest in reading in prison is changing attitudes in the wider Traveller community. More and more, we’re seeing Traveller men in prison who’ve learnt to read and are now passionate about their kids going to school, telling us ‘education is the only way forward.’’
For free copies of Traveller reading series’ books contact the Traveller Project, The Irish Chaplaincy in Britain, 50-52 Camden Square, London, NW1 9XB or travellers@irishchaplaincy. org.uk
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