Ireland’s Education and Training Boards lead national education response to those fleeing Ukraine
Sixteen one-stop shops for all schools, English classes, and ICT devices amongst measures
Education and Training Boards (ETBs) are coordinating the development of sixteen multi-agency Regional Education and Language Teams (REALT), delivering English Language classes, and deploying laptops and tablets to support schools providing places for Ukrainian children.
Each Regional Education and Language Team includes professionals and representatives from Tusla’s Education Support Service, school psychological services, special education needs specialists and school management bodies. ETBs also have
• A dedicated Coordinator to support each Regional Education and Language Team
• A dedicated school support email and phone number
• A dedicated register of ICT devices (laptops, notebooks, tablets, and other mobile devices) to facilitate eLearning.
While schools continue to be the primary contact point for Ukrainian families seeking places for their children, the Regional Education and Language Teams will assist those schools in terms of supporting capacity, sharing information and resources including those for ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages).
ETB Further Education & Training (FET) services will play a key role in the delivery of ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) providing
• A single point of contact for ESOL provision through their Adult Education Officer
• Access to nationwide network of adult guidance services
• A Family Learning ESOL toolkit.
Welcoming these developments, ETBI General Secretary Paddy Lavelle stated: “Because of our nationwide locations and in-house administrative supports, Education and Training Boards are ideally placed to co-ordinate this response in collaboration with our partners across the entire school sector. We are all focussed on making the initial entry into our education system as stress-free as possible for our Ukrainian arrivals. ETBI has also appointed a designated lead to support our ETB members and we are liaising closely with the Department of Education and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.”
“I have also been delighted to hear stories of compassion and warmth about our member ETBs, their staff and learners from welcome and information sessions in Co Dublin to a traditional music and dance school welcome and parent and baby English classes in Co Clare” he concluded.
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Ireland’s Education and Training Boards lead national education response to those fleeing Ukraine
