ACERT AGM

Last Sunday we had the AGM of the Advisory Council on the Education of Gypsies and Travellers, an organisation formed in 1973 by Lady (Bridget) Plowden to lobby for more effort and resources to be put into Gypsy, Roma and Traveller education. I succeeded her as President when she died at the age of 90 in 2000, and as usual this year I spoke at the AGM on current problems of which the main one is the rundown in the Traveller Education Support Service. Since 2006 when the ring-fenced money provided by the Department for Education was merged into a more general pot, local authorities have been making Traveller Teachers redundant, not replacing those who retire, and in some cases abolishing the service entirely.