By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor
OUR sister paper the Abergele Visitor has sourced a cracking story this week about plans by Conwy and Denbighshire county councils to have a school catering for gipsy traveller children based in Rhyl.
The whole issue of whether local authorities or the Welsh Assembly should be paying for facilities for a transient population is an explosive one which almost everybody probably has an opinion on, so I'm wisely not going to go into it here (but you, dear reader, can if you wish to leave a comment!).
No, what amused me were the quotes from Denbighshire's social services scrutiny committee chair Diana Hannam, who to my mind seems to regard the gipsy traveller lifestyle as an undesirable way of life which those who live it should be looking to "escape". After some rather florid eulogising about the advantages of a good education - "Education is the key to the journey of life. It unlocks the door to the path of opportunity" - Cllr Hannam goes on to say: "These children didn't choose where they were born and they didn't choose who their parents are. How can they ever lift themselves from that life if they aren't treated to an education?"
I agree with her that every child deserves a good quality education, and when children live nomadic lifestyles it is difficult for them to become part of the standard education system with any beneficial effect. But to refer to the gipsy traveller lifestyle as something to "lift" oneself out of is a rather demeaning turn of phrase. It's like saying that children born into poverty in the North of England don't choose where they are born or who their parents are, and should be given the opportunity to escape their unfortunate existences. It's a little elitist, if well-meaning.
There could be anything up to 12 children being educated at the proposed centre at any one time, we're told, so there must be a demand. But just because Conwy and Denbighshire provides a centre doesn't mean other authorities will in England and Wales, and so when families move on (as is their way of life) they may find that when they arrive in Ynys Mon or Shropshire or Dorset there is no equivalent education centre, and so the child's education is disrupted and devalued.
It's not an easy problem to solve, but if we are to start catering for the education of the transient population, it needs to be a UK-wide initiative, not something introduced ad-hoc in pockets across the country.
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Anonymous wrote...
It would be interesting to know what efforts are being made by the travellers community in Wales or even the UK, to help with these plans. They may not be able to offer funding but could help identify key areas where education is lacking for children, or suggest fitting timetables for classes or courses.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 21, 2008 2:43 PM