The new academic year has just begun and most parents of school-going children will agree that selecting a risk-free mode of transport for safe travel of their wards is as important as choosing the right school.
If quality of education is the yardstick for making choice of the institution, safety is top priority while choosing the means of commute, specially when roads are choking with heavy traffic where rickety cycle and auto-rickshaws vie with over-crowded school buses, some of them old and worn out threatening to fall apart. This is one area that needs utmost focus.
“The dreadful sight of over-crowded autorickshaws with children partly drifting out of their seat prompted me to hire a separate autorickshaw for my son, even if it meant paying extra money. But after the initial few days, he began to take in more children till a point when the vehicle could not accommodate any more,” says Neeraja Asrani, a harried mother. Just when she wanted to enrol her son’s name in the school bus, she came across newspapers reports talking about the large number of ‘unfit’ buses operated by school managements. Ms. Asrani now has rescheduled her timing to be able to drop her son to school.
Niranjan Rao, a resident of Bawajipet, drops his 12-year-old daughter at her school located some 3 km from home on a two-wheeler. In the afternoon, he is at the campus half an hour before time to take her back. “I don’t trust these unruly autorickshaw drivers and neither can I afford the high fares the management charges for the school bus. That leaves me with no other choice,” he says.
Some schools blame parents for not opting for ‘safe official transport’, but not all of them have their own fleet of buses. The ones which have are not enough to meet the demand.
“We operate nine buses to cater to the transport needs of our children. Nearly 600 kids travel in three separate trips for kindergarteners, primary and secondary school children. Besides timely replacement of the vehicles, we also take care of other factors like presence of a lady supervisor in the bus,” says Rama Bharathi, principal of the Gunadala campus of St. John’s English Medium School.
“Government should make mandatory for schools to have their own fleet of vehicles, and more importantly, they should be in good condition and fares should be reasonable,” says Kavitha Lalwani, who feels that unless parents are convinced about safety of their children, they would not rely on others.
Ms. Lalwani’s fears are not unfounded. According to the Transport Department data, of the 23,754 buses operated by educational institutions across the State, 4,780 do not have the mandatory fitness certificate. Schools in East Godavari operate maximum number of unfit buses (914) followed by Guntur (698), West Godavari (556) and Chittoor (519) in that order.
Cases booked
Then there are school buses operating in violation of the rule book. In the last six months, the Department has booked 561 cases against as many school vehicles for not adhering to the stipulated norms.
The Transport wing officials are, however, satisfied with the compliance rate. “Compared to other states, our school buses are fit and are in good condition. There is no accident involving a school bus in the last year,” says M. Purendra, Deputy Transport Commissioner, Krishna district.
In the absence of public transport facility, most parents are forced to rely either on school buses which at times turn into bullying zones, or over-loaded private autorickshaw criss-crossing city roads in the morning rush hour.
“Frequent hike in petrol and diesel prices besides increase in vehicle registration fee leaves the auto drivers with no choice but to demand more,” contends Donepudi Kasinath, honorary president of Vijayawada City Auto Workers’ Union. He argues that one should take into consideration the ‘waiting charges’ as well. “In the morning and in the afternoon when school gets over, these auto drivers do not take any customers from outside to accommodate the children,” he reminds.
Of late, a fleet of private mini vans and big cars have joined the school transport race, but parents feel that the options they have are bad, worse and worst
