Plans to phase out adult training centres for Travellers over the next five years will result in a large secondary school drop-out rate among younger members of the community, it has been warned.
The former mayor of Tuam, Co Galway councillor Mr Martin Ward, who sits on the board of the National Association of Training Centres (NATS), said he had been made aware of plans to phase out these centres. He said it would be a disgrace if this happened.
Mr Ward said he understood the Traveller training centres would be replaced by a more integrated system in which Travellers would be encouraged to stay in long-term education with members of the settled community.
However, the councillor, who is himself a member of the Travelling community, said while he had no problem with integration, this system would not work.
There are adult training centres in Tuam, Loughrea, Ballinasloe, Galway city and Ballygar which provide several hundred Travellers with basic education and some practical skills.
If the plans go ahead these five centres will be closed, resulting in the loss of over 50 teaching posts at a time when some Travellers' groups are calling for the centres to be expanded.
Mr Ward said a number of middle-aged Travellers from the St Benin's Training Centre in Tuam had returned to school and successfully completed their Leaving Cert last year. "That would not happen if these training centres were phased out. The training centres provide a comfort zone for Travellers that they do not feel in the other conventional schools.
"It would mean that there would be a big drop-out rate at secondary school, and the younger members of the Travelling community would simply not return to education."
