TCD IS SET to launch a major initiative to fight educational disadvantage and promote economic development in the Dublin docklands area. Last week, the college's University Council approved the establishment of a new Centre for Educational Access and Community Development. Although the centre will be located in the college campus, it is envisaged that an outreach centre will be established in the docklands area.
"It is a very significant development and one on which we have been working for a long time," says TCD's provost, Dr Tom Mitchell. "Our aim will be to increase awareness among young and old alike within the docklands of the value of education and to increase the confidence and capability of the local community," he says. The focus of the centre will be on literacy, numeracy, computing, language and study skills and on social, economic and community development issues.
The centre will also carry out detailed research programmes on the problems and the potential of the docklands area. The work of the centre, Mitchell stresses, will be carried out in close co-operation and consultation with the local community.
TCD is already involved in a number of initiatives designed to fight educational disadvantage. The new centre will expand on this work. The Trinity Access Programme (TAP) works with 11 local second-level schools. Already, third-level participation rates in TAP schools have doubled from 6 to 12 per cent. The Trinity (Higher Education) Access Programme, which was established in 1997 to cater for mature students who lack sufficient qualifications to gain entry to third level, is also proving a success, Mitchell says.
Of the 15 students who completed the programme this year, 12 have taken up university places. Meanwhile, up to 300 TCD students are currently involved in a volunteer one-to-one tutoring programme for primary-school pupils at the St Andrew's Resource Centre, Pearse Street. A major innovation - believed to be the first of its kind - to be developed by the new centre is the establishment of a bridging course for Leaving Cert students who fail to achieve the high entry grades required in the CAO system. "Through our involvement in TAP, we have discovered that there is a sizeable number of talented and reasonably motivated young people who are unable to get into college through the CAO system," Mitchell explains. "They need a particular form of help - a bridging course before they come into college is preferable to simply putting in supports for them once they come in." Following the bridging course, which will cover a number of core subject areas, including English, maths, science and technology, students will sit an exam, successful completion of which will secure them a college place. Only students from designated schools will be able to participate in the scheme, and there will be a special focus on the docklands area, the provost notes.
The centre will also develop adult-education courses. "We want to involve the older generation and encourage a change of culture so that young people can begin to think positively about education," he says.
New programmes for early school-leavers will also be developed. "We are interested in developing programmes in the arts and community theatre, for example. We want to develop a range of talents in people whose abilities may be other than academic." The college hopes, Mitchell says, to provide a community centre in the docklands which will deliver cross-generational programmes. "This is intended to be a cradle-to-grave programme for people who find themselves in difficult circumstances. The cross-generational approach is very powerful. Younger people draw support from seeing older people being interested in education.
"Eventually we hope to acquire a community centre which will be managed by the community. We are prepared to invest heavily in this and we hope that the Government will find the funding to support us."
