Student Special: The challenges faced by Travellers in third level education

We live in a country where financial barriers to a college education are rising, social exclusion of various groups is ingrained, and only 13 per cent of Travellers complete secondary school. Consequently, Travellers in third-level education are a distinct minority whose experiences haven’t been adequately recognised or highlighted.

For most settled people, the mental image associated with applying for college involves stressing over Leaving results and CAO points. For the most part this doesn’t apply to Travellers. Kathleen Lawrence left school at 15, and at 29 applied directly to Maynooth as a mature student.

Following a 500-word essay, she attended an interview where she was told that “because I had no qualifications or anything like that, I could either do a week-long essay course, or a year’s supported education course – so I did the essay course, and I got in.” She went on to graduate with a Bachelor in Civil Law, interned in the USA with the Washington in Ireland programme, and garnered positive coverage in Irish newspapers.

It was not necessarily plain sailing once she entered the hallowed halls of college, however. News reports on crime involving Travellers inevitably invited questions from classmates who, while sometimes having ‘naïve’, innocent intentions, caused Kathleen to feel isolated and burdened by being seen not as an individual, but as a representative of all Travellers everywhere – the “token Traveller”.

“I met great people and made friends,” she says, “but I had experiences where I felt like I had to justify my existence – to answer for all Travellers instead of just myself.” This caused her to mainly keep to the friends in her course and in the societies she’d joined who gave her much-needed support.

The bitter irony is that this reasonable response to discrimination could be misinterpreted as insularity or clannishness by people already negatively predisposed to Travellers – and there are more than a few of those around.

“Discrimination against Travellers is like the last acceptable form of discrimination in Ireland,” says Kathleen. “I’ve been followed in shops, I’ve been refused service. I saw Facebook comments on the Carrickmines fire that basically said, ‘Good, 10 less of them.’ It was horrifying.”

TJ Hogan, meanwhile, grew up in Cork and had a difficult time in school. His severe dyslexia was never identified, and he was routinely denied the necessary resources and support in a pattern of what he calls “institutional racism” that make his achievements to date – Traveller Pride Award winner, current Masters student – all the more remarkable.

He found his degree in Community Development to be where he became himself. “I found it to be a really open, equality-minded atmosphere,” he says. “Nobody cared what colour you were or where you were from, it was all about who you were and what you had to say.”

Having been reticent to let people know his heritage prior to starting college, he found that he could proudly proclaim who he was – and he expanded his social network: “I met a wide range of people from different backgrounds.” He also had support for his dyslexia through the provision of software allowing him to compose essays and notes through voice.

Both Kathleen and TJ work with Traveller community organisations – Kathleen with Pavee Point, TJ with Traveller Visibility Group Cork. This has inspired, sustained and informed their college experience, and has fired them with the urge to fight for Traveller and human rights.

Many Travellers lack these supportive conditions and influences. Síona Cahill, Deputy President of the USI, makes that clear in referencing the 2016 National Access Plan: “0.1% of respondents indicated they were Irish Travellers in 2015-16. That means that in 2015, there was 35 students who identified as Travellers in Higher Education. The target over five years is 80. This isn’t a percentage – it’s just a number, barely double digits. It’s not good enough, but we are moving forward.”

Barriers like financial and childcare issues are present, but secondary school presents problems of its own. “There’s a sense that teachers often don’t encourage Travellers at secondary school to drive and achieve,” Cahill notes.

TJ agrees: “Teachers will say, ‘There’s no point putting in resources or money, they’re just going to go on the dole or get minimum-wage work.’” There are, however, signs that this attitude is beginning to shift. Cahill states that “we are seeing newly qualified teachers make a way bigger effort to meet the needs of young Travellers and support them through second level, because more and more it’s being made a priority at teacher training colleges.”

Cahill acknowledges that the experiences of Travellers in third level have improved, but that it can still be difficult for a myriad of reasons.

“You’ve got lack of running water, or the electricity being cut, or a family event which could go on for days, in which you have a commitment to the younger kids in your family and community or another community role. It’s also hard when you’re such an extremely small minority at third level – Travellers often don’t disclose their ethnicity to class mates, or even register their status with the college, as they don’t want assumptions made about them or their work. There is slow cultural change away from that.”

Finally, Cahill identifies an issue that many working-class settled families could relate to – an attitude springing from poverty and necessity. “In the past and even now, many Traveller families would value more practical education which will mean your earning ability is more immediate, rather than higher level education like college with more time to get into the workforce.”

Identifying problems is one thing, tackling them quite another. TJ suggests that education at primary and secondary levels feature integrated, Traveller-specific content such as Cant and Gammon language classes and horse-culture lessons. He feels that teacher training should include information on Traveller culture and discrimination, which Kathleen agrees with.

Kathleen is sceptical about how much political and social will there is to make necessary changes: “People are not willing – there’s a ‘not in my back yard’ mentality.” She sees education provision as one strand in an interconnected series of issues, from Traveller-specific accommodation to change on a social level, that can only be tackled if Travellers are respected and given due priority for consideration – but she thinks it will take “a long time”.

TJ, Kathleen and Síona all welcome the long-overdue recognition of the Travellers’ ethnic minority status in March, but there is a clear sense that this was not granted but fought for, and that it needs to be followed by action and resources. Síona recommends that Pavee Point and other Traveller representative groups need to be well resourced with full time education officers who are best placed in the community to support young Travellers to work towards college and further education, and older Travellers to return to learning or go to college as Mature students. Another vital issue is diversity in teaching – if Traveller children can see Travellers teaching them, this can have a major impact. As Síona writes, ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’, and if Ireland is going to deliver in its promises, it needs to open that door.