Traveller Children Denied an Education

[Baron von Biffo]

There is no evidence to support this. They are just assertions on your part.

Sometime when I have nothing better to do I must undertake a formal survey to establish whether or not people are more or less likely to support services they or their families are likely to benefit from.

Perhaps it will show that I'm way out of touch with the modern world and that parents are putting in many hours a week organising fund-raisers for schools 20 miles distant.

I guess "blow ins" are not considered part of the community in your neck of the woods.

I'm a blow in in my neck of the woods.

[C. Flower]

Many of those 'uneducated' Traveller children will be turning up in your road in a BMW jeep offering you all sorts of services..."For just a thousand Euros,.. sir"..." Okay then sir.....er... 150 Euros"

They will still, very unfortunately, have the reading age of a child... ..........but the business acumen of a Rothschild!

Some families trade carpets, some are in the horse business, some do tarmac and paving, some work for the civil service and local authorities. I know one who is a solicitor. People who don't read have to hold everything in the head, and it is good for the brains. But the disadvantages of illiteracy are increasing all the time as society becomes more bureaucratised and office based.

Traveller girls still mainly marry very young, a few do their Leaving. Boys, where there is a family trade, tend to be trained into it young by their fathers.
Literacy didn't use to be a big deal - a lot of small farmers of the older generation don't have more than basics, but now it is getting very difficult for anyone who can't read or write.

The first cut that was made by Fianna Fail (at the time they tried to take the medical cards from some pensioners) was the book allowance for Travellers, Traveller's teaching supports have been cut. Now they get a Court judgement that gives a free pass to any school to put them bottom of the queue - and it can be hard enough, anyway, for them to get in.

Travellers have to get through a lot of barriers to become literate, in their own communities/families and from settled people. The supports they were getting for their childrens' education cost small money, and were an investment for society.

It is unbelievably mean to have taken them away.

[fluffybiscuits]

Some families trade carpets, some are in the horse business, some do tarmac and paving, some work for the civil service and local authorities. I know one who is a solicitor. People who don't read have to hold everything in the head, and it is good for the brains. But the disadvantages of illiteracy are increasing all the time as society becomes more bureaucratised and office based.

Traveller girls still mainly marry very young, a few do their Leaving. Boys, where there is a family trade, tend to be trained into it young by their fathers.
Literacy didn't use to be a big deal - a lot of small farmers of the older generation don't have more than basics, but now it is getting very difficult for anyone who can't read or write.

The first cut that was made by Fianna Fail (at the time they tried to take the medical cards from some pensioners) was the book allowance for Travellers, Traveller's teaching supports have been cut. Now they get a Court judgement that gives a free pass to any school to put them bottom of the queue - and it can be hard enough, anyway, for them to get in.

Travellers have to get through a lot of barriers to become literate, in their own communities/families and from settled people. The supports they were getting for their childrens' education cost small money, and were an investment for society.

It is unbelievably mean to have taken them away.

The need for literacy skills cannot be emphasised enough, especially as we move to a world where there is internet and everything is done through technology. In news item in the IT recently it was mentioned that people whom have literacy issues and who receive targeted training are three times more likely to gain employment.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...317819114.html

Grant cuts to the travelling community would severly impact their chances of finding employment in the future.