School chairman defends exclusion of four travellers

THE chairman of Killimor National School in Co Galway has issued a statement defending the exclusion of four traveller children from attending the school.

Father Ciaran Kitching PP yesterday also strongly rejected any implication that there was a problem with travellers in the school where a new rule was introduced during the summer excluding pupils from outside the parish.

Three of the four boys are the children of a traveller, Mrs Eileen Ward, who lives nearby, but not in the Killimor parish. They were prevented from attending the school when it reopened in early September because they had left the school on May 11th last and did not live in the Killimor parish, Father Kitching said.

"In accordance with Department of Education rules they were taken off the roll," he said. "During the summer the board of management enacted new enrolment rules which read as follows: `From September 1st, 1996, only children in Killimor parish are eligible for enrolment in Killimor School. Brothers and sisters of those in school are also eligible'."

The traveller children at the centre of the controversy left in May, live outside the parish and so are not eligible, he said. Mrs Ward, who lives in a traveller encampment three miles away, had claimed her three oldest boys were happily attending the school over a number of years and as a parent she had not been informed of the rule change which, she believed, was anti traveller.

"There has never been a problem with traveller children in Killimor School. The teachers have worked tirelessly and are working tirelessly in an effort to integrate them fully into the school," Father Kitching said.

At present, there were 13 traveller children from five traveller families settled in the Killimor parish attending the school, he added.

When the Department of Education was asked to comment on the controversy initially, a spokesman gave a reply to a Dail Question issued in July by the Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach. In it, she said that the enrolment policy for national schools is "generally a matter for the board of management of each school and parents are advised to contact the board in the first instance".

The Minister pointed out that it was up to schools to alert the Department where additional accommodation may be needed "or alternative arrangements need to be made to accommodate pupils".

When asked to comment later on the Killimor controversy specifically, a spokesman said the Department was in communication with the school and was considering issuing a statement.

A traveller representative, Ms Ellen Mongan, a member of Tuam Town Commissioners, said that their community was terribly disappointed by what had occurred in Killimor.

"I hope that the Killimor situation is solved quickly. It's the children who are suffering most," she said.