The district administration has decided to change school timings to ease traffic congestion during peak hours. However, there will be no blanket order applicable to all schools.
“The timings will be changed on a case-by-case basis after studying the location of each school, its student strength and the traffic situation in the locality,” Collector Anshul Mishra told the heads of over 250 schools here on Friday.
Addressing the meeting at the Collectorate, he said that school managements should convince parents of the need to advance the timing by 30 to 45 minutes, which was in the interest of their children.
“There is a great rush in the mornings because school and office timings clash. Schoolchildren are travelling by footboard on government buses. A dangerous situation persists, especially in the city limits, and we have to address this issue urgently,” he said.
The collector said he was aware of the inconvenience to parents and children. “We have no other option. Most of the big cities have similar arrangements. We must also follow suit,” he pointed out.
He suggested that schools could consider fixing a particular time for students in primary classes and a different timing for others. But almost all school heads expressed their reluctance to change their school timings.
“Don’t try to shoot down our proposal outright. We don’t want to force things on you. But you must understand that we have a tough situation to deal with. You can see that even parents get stuck in traffic snarls on the way to drop their children in schools,” the collector told them.
He informed the gathering that a final decision on changing school timings will be taken within a week, in consultation with the police officials in charge of maintaining road traffic.
He urged the school heads to get back to him after discussing the issue with the parents community.
