North's Traveller children missing minimum literacy standards
Nine out of 10 Traveller children in the North are missing minimum standards for reading and writing, it was revealed today.
Many are opting out of post-primary education completely, the North's Department of Education warned.
Deprivation and falling school rolls in secondary schools aggravated by academic selection have been blamed for the problem.
A report from the department said: "It is little wonder if attainment suffers in educational environments that are being gradually deserted and are concentrations of social disadvantage."
Minister Caitriona Ruane wants to see 70% of students gaining five GCSE grades A-C by 2020.
She hopes 95% will have sat GCSE's by the time they leave school by 2020.
Her department published its 'Every School A Good School' strategy for raising achievement in literacy and numeracy today for consultation.
"For Travellers the outcomes are also a concern with nine out of 10 Traveller children not achieving the required literacy levels," it said.
A 2006 audit office report said in secondary schools in Belfast two thirds of boys aged 14 and one third of girls do not achieve the required literacy levels.
The dossier added: "There is no equality argument for a selective system that has seen too many children deemed as failures and that fails a disproportionate number of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
"In terms of gaining access to grammar education, children from low-income families have less than half the chance of children from more affluent backgrounds."
The debate over a replacement for the 11-plus, being scrapped after this year, has polarised schools and political opinion - with some principals threatening to set their own entrance tests.
Today's paper said the secondary system was bearing the impact of falling pupil numbers and linked difficulties in maintaining shrinking schools.
The department is establishing a committee to look at the education of traveller children.
"Part of the reality check must be recognition that, despite the significant strengths evident in the current educational system, there are real pockets of under-achievement, with levels of literacy and numeracy particularly worrying in those areas most affected by the impact and the aftermath of the conflict over the past four decades, and by significant levels of social and economic disadvantage," it added.
