· Education and training programmes to help
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children catch up on lost
learning
· Programmes backed by £400,000
investment to help over one hundred
children
· Tutoring, one-to-one support and
expert guidance to help young people progress in education or
find employment
Children and young people from
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities will receive extra
educational support under proposals outlined today (Tuesday 8
December) by Communities Minister .
Evidence shows that children
from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds are among the lowest
achieving groups at every key stage of education and are
likely to have been disproportionally affected by the pandemic,
due to lack of access to public services and digital exclusion,
which impairs access to online learning.
Backed by £400,000 Government
investment, over one hundred children and young people from
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities will receive extra
tutoring, one-to-one support and expert guidance to help them
progress in education or find employment.
The first of the projects will
provide online ‘catch-up’ tutoring for a group of up
to eighty Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children to support their
learning and tackle the attainment gap between these children and
their peers.
The second will
provide up
to thirty young
people who are not in education, employment and training in
Derbyshire, London, Essex and Kent with access to targeted support and
educational resources to help move them into further education or
employment.
Communities
Minister said:
“All of the evidence shows us
that members of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities continue to
face some of the steepest challenges in society, and the pandemic
is likely to have increased these yet further, especially in
education.
“Children from these
communities have been disproportionately affected by being out of
school, which is why I am so determined to help them bridge the
gap to their peers.
“These important projects will
ensure that vulnerable children have a fair chance in life and
are given the opportunity to gain further skills and experiences
to help them in education or in the workplace.”
Pauline Anderson,
Chair, and Yvonne MacNamara, CEO of The Traveller Movement
said:
"We are delighted to be able to
support the development of this new programme, which will afford
these young people opportunities that have not previously been
available to them.
“We will provide
one-to-one tutoring catch-up to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller
children that have fallen behind on schoolwork due to the
pandemic, alongside support for up to thirty young people not in
education, employment or training to gain level two functional
skills in Maths and English.”
Michael Farrell,
Interim Programme Manager of Open Doors Education and Training
said:
“We are really excited about
this venture as Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children and young
people have traditionally fared poorly in education league
tables.
“Programmes such as these are
vital for ensuring young people are valued, supported and
given opportunities to develop career prospects and access
to further education and training pathways.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)
is leading the development of a cross-government
strategy to
tackle the inequalities and improve outcomes faced by Gypsy, Roma
and Traveller communities across the country.
The Department for Education is
also running a National Tutoring Programme, worth £350 million,
which will increase access to high-quality tuition for the most
disadvantaged young people over the 2020/21 academic
year.
This will help accelerate their
academic progress and prevent the gap between them and their more
affluent peers widening.
