Irish Travellers face significant systemic barriers in education, resulting in Traveller children leaving education earlier than settled children. While approximately 68% of Traveller children attend early childhood education, only around 13% complete upper-secondary education, and less than 1% attain third-level degrees compared to the national average of 76%.
Kerry Travellers Health and Community Development Project share the aim of the Irish Traveller Movement that “Travellers will attend and attain at all levels of education and have the confidence in their identity within a whole school environment where diversity is valued and where more Travellers view education as one of the valid means to fulfil their own potential”.
The level of inequalities faced by Travellers in education has lifelong impact on their lives. Educational outcomes are a key factor influencing the inequalities Travellers face in relation to health, employment and accommodation.
The Oireachtas Joint Committee Report on Key Issues Facing The Traveller Community (2021) highlighted how extreme the inequalities in education are:
- Only 13% of Travellers complete secondary education compared to 92% of the general population.
- 13% of female Travellers are educated to upper secondary level or above, compared with 69% of the female general population.
- 57% of male Travellers are educated to primary level at most, compared with 13.6% of the general population.
- 28% of Travellers leave school before the age of 13, compared to 1% of general population.
- 8% of Travellers have completed education to Leaving Certificate level, compared to 73% of non-Travellers.
- 1% of Travellers aged between 25-64 have a degree, compared to 30% of non-Travellers.
- 50% of Travellers have poor functional literacy, compared to 9% of the general population.
- 18% of Traveller children have no formal education in comparison with 1.4% of the general population.
- 67% of Traveller children live in families where the mother has either no formal education or primary education only.
- 62% of Travellers experience discrimination at school
Our team works with Traveller families and key agencies in the education sector to achieve better outcomes for Travellers.
