"THEY'RE living in ghettos," says one man who works on behalf of Travellers. "Many don't have a refuse collection. They are impoverished. They have the same problems as Third World countries."

In education, too, Travellers are marginalised. Huge numbers do not complete the primary sector and only 12 per cent even start second level schooling.

Educationalists do not dispute claims that most Traveller children fare badly in the overall education system. At primary level - although there is a higher participation rate than in the past - attainment levels are still low in comparison with national average performance levels.

It is also accepted that young Travellers continue to drop out of the education system, often before they have reached the post primary tier. The Department of Education reports that 80 per cent of Traveller children did not attend post primary schools in the 1989/1990 school year. Of the children who continue into secondlevel, most do not continue after the second year. Hardly any Travellers access mainstream training or third level education.

Teachers says that Traveller children and teenagers are affected by prejudice and injustice which are hardening, according to a major survey. In his book, Prejudice in Ireland Revisited, published last year, Rev Micheal Mac Greil, SJ, found that Irish people's attitudes to Travellers painted a picture of "caste like apartheid". He expressed surprise that the Irish people "have refused to accommodate this tiny, if visible, minority".

John O'Connell, director of the Travellers' rights' organisation, Pavee Point, says that Travellers fare badly in the overall education system "by any standards". He says that "a huge level" do not complete the primary cycle. He accepts that a significant number of young people drop out at or before 15 years of age in order to marry or to work.

"They do not see education as valid for them, " says O'Connell. They question the relevance for them of going to school... "and it's not an illogical position. There is still a major question as to what relevance the education system has. The whole system is very geared to getting into third level."

In Bray, Co Wicklow, Mairin Kenny, principal of St Kieran's Special National School for Travellers, says that low attainment levels are due to "structurally produced learning difficulties. I would not see the children as innately having learning difficulties at all. Traveller children have been damaged by marginalisation and racism. But the gap is narrowing every year."

Undoing the effects of racism is a slow process, says Kenny. "They came into the system only in the 1970s, so it's not surprising that there would be a gap."

O'Connell says that progress has been made over the past 30 years. In 1963, only 114 Traveller children attended primary schools regularly. Today, it is estimated, about 4,200 attend primary schools.

Although there is doubt in many quarters about the accuracy of census findings for Travellers, the most up to date official figures available - indicate that there are about 5,000 Traveller children of primary school age in the State. Of those who attend primary schools, about 1,800 children attend ordinary classes full time and about 2,400 attend special teachers for Travellers.

There are four special schools for Traveller children, with an aggregate enrolment of about 260. At the moment, 268 special teachers of Travellers are attached to national schools around the country. Of these, about 250 are supporting Traveller children who are in mainstream classes while the remaining 18 have separate classes within the schools. There are also 15 visiting teachers for Travellers.

The largest concentration of teachers for Travellers is in the Dublin area, where there are six visiting teachers and up to 60 special teachers.

"The greatest thing that militates against them is the standard of their accommodation," says Maugie Francis, national education officer for Travellers in the Department of Education.

Michael O'Reilly, vice principal of St Kieran's and chairman of the Association of Teachers of Travelling People, says that "if you accept the concept of nomadism, the school system is not designed to deal with this". He speaks of the bureacracy of form filling - by the time a process has been set in motion the Travellers may have moved on.

One of the biggest areas of concern for teachers is "how to deal with children who are sometimes in very difficult situations," says O'Reilly. He talks about the low self esteem and self confidence from which most Traveller children suffer. This is so strong that they are "almost programmed to fail."

In the past, as Kenny explains, it would be absorbed. This thinking has now changed and educational policy now requires the curriculum in education and training institutes to be intercultural in content and perspective.

"One of the key things is that integration has to happen at a lot of levels" says Kenny, who completed a doctoral thesis on Travellers and second level education at TCD last year. "It has to happen conceptually. It has to happen in the way we theorise about Irish society." She cites the practice of providing trainee teachers with a separate module on Irish Travellers. She believes that this is not enough.

THE different culture and lifestyle of the Travellers should be included and "given honourable mention" at all levels and not in a separate section. At school, it should be "fite fuaite" throughout the curriculum. She points out that not everyone lives in a house, but rarely do teachers refer to the Traveller option of living in a mobile home or a caravan. "That has to be written in."

Sadly, many Traveller children do not declare their identity when they are in mainstream classrooms, says Kenny. "The whole of society has a problem in relation to Travellers," she says. "Over the past 25 years there has been a huge shift among teachers committed to Travellers and this is in parallel with Travellers themselves." They have moved from thinking that they were a deprived minority to seeing themselves as distinct, as an ethnic minority.

According to the ATTP, which has 164 members, the Minister for Education has failed to act on any of the educational recommendations made in the Task Force report on the Travelling Community two years ago. Last November protests were organised outside Leinster House by the Irish Traveller Movement with the support of the INTO and other groups to highlight this inaction.

The ATTP wants the Minister to act without delay on several recommendations, including the immediate extension of the visiting teacher service to the recommended ratio of one teacher for every 100 families. Currently, most counties are without this service. The association also wants action on the recommendation to provide pre service and in career training for all teachers in multiculturalism and in skills to counteract prejudice, racism and xenophobia.

The Task Force Report also urges a Traveller education unit advised by experts, parents, teachers and other relevant bodies and under the direction of a person of assistant secretary rank. The aim must be to bring young Travellers fully into Irish education from pre school to third level.

A co ordinating committee on Traveller education has now been established within the Department of Education to address these issues, says a Department spokeswoman.