Expected closure of Shannon Bank training centre "a retrograde step"

The expected closure of Athlone's Shannon Bank Training and Education Centre has been described as "a retrograde step" by the chairman of its management committee, Cllr Kieran Molloy. Speaking to the Westmeath Independent on Monday, Cllr Molloy expressed concern that many of the early school-leavers who have been benefiting from courses at the centre could have difficulty being accommodated in the mainstream adult education system. According to the Budget for 2011, all of the country's training and education centres (also known as Senior Traveller Training Centres) are to be closed by June 2012. No closure date for the Athlone centre, on the Clonown Road, has yet been fixed. However Cllr Molloy said that with several centres closing recently, and four more due to close next month, the signs are ominous. The councillor has been involved with the centre since he was first elected to the local authority in 1991, and he will be very sorry to see it go. "I have always found it to be a great place for people who had left education at an early stage," he said. "Though centres like this were labelled Traveller Training Centres, the people who took part in courses there were not only Travellers but also other people who had left school early. "The centre has been working well in recent years. The staff are excellent and there is a great engagement between the staff and students." The centre has offered courses on a range of topics including literacy, numeracy, woodwork, metalwork, childcare, hairdressing, computers, arts & crafts and aerobics. Last year it had an enrolment of 32 student but the figure has since dropped to 15 because all such centres were prevented from taking in new students this year. The centre has nine staff, most of whom are part-time, and it's expected that they will be redeployed to other areas. The Government has said that, with the planned closure of the centres, alternative education for those who used them will be prioritised within the Back to Education initiative. Nevertheless, a "Teach" report on the progression of Travellers through the Irish education system, published last June, found that after the closure of the Traveller training centre in Mullingar in 2008, none of the 52 Travellers attending the centre entered mainstream adult education programmes. "I've been told that the students who were in the Mullingar centre are now just walking the streets," said Cllr Molloy. "It's very disappointing. These centres cater for a particular niche, and it's a huge retrograde step to close them. "I think the Government's plans to bring the students into the Back to Education initiative won't work in a lot of cases." In February, the Irish Travellers Movement, the National Traveller Women's Forum and Pavee Point Travellers' Centre issued a joint statement in which they asserted that the cuts to Traveller education were disproportionate when compared with cutbacks in other areas of education.