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School vans: facility or nuisance for parents
Karachi, Nov 10, 2007: Thursday's hijacking of a school van by its driver who had
threatened to ram the van into the airport along with the children reminded Dr
Afshan, a gynaecologist working for a local private hospital, of an incident a
few months back when her mother-in-law called her at the hospital and informed
her that her five-year-old daughter had not yet returned from school.
She immediately made a call to her daughter's school but nobody
responded. Confused about what to do to locate her only child, she urged one of
her colleagues to take care of the patients and rushed to the school, located in
Gulistan-e-Jauhar. It was around quarter past three in the afternoon and she was
on the way towards her daughter's educational institute, when Dr Afshan received
her mother-in-law's call on her cell-phone that her daughter had just reached
home.
On reaching home, she discovered that the delay was caused as the
school van, in which Maryam was transported to and from her school, had
developed some mechanical fault on the way from school and the operator managed
to arrange an alternate van after a delay of one and a half hour.
The
story does not end here as the next morning, which was Sunday, to Dr Afshan's
surprise, she heard her little daughter singing an Indian song, considered as
highly vulgar and objectionable. On inquiry, it was revealed that such songs are
played by the driver of the school van while transporting young children to and
from school.
Most of the fathers don't consider it an issue worth
discussing outside their homes but for most of the mothers, it is as important
as schooling of their children or even the security of their sons and daughters
and whenever possible, they try to bring to the notice of people concerned.
For some of them, exorbitant fares charged by the school van operators
is another major issue in addition to unsafe journey of their children, frequent
delays in their arrival, vulgar music and language used by the drivers during
the journey besides rash driving.
Many mothers who send their children
to schools through vans said they approached respective school administrations
on a number of occasions to ensure that all school vans are made safe enough to
shuttle kids from their homes to the educational institutions and vice versa but
failed to get any assurance or positive response from school owners and
administrations as they say it was none of their business.
"If parents
can be compelled to pay whatever fare demanded by the van operators under
different pretexts, then why can't we demand a safe and sound journey and better
conditions for our children" argued Mrs Safia Waseem while opening the Pandora
Box of complaints against the operators of school vans and school
administrations. Complaining of an indifferent attitude of school van and bus
drivers, she said overcrowding was another issue as she had often seen both of
her kids standing while going to school or back home.
She held school
administrations responsible for all the physical torture students have to bear.
Another lady narrated a different story regarding the nexus of school
van operators, plying their vehicles in a same area. "I live one-and-a-half
kilometres from the school where my children study. The school van operator
charges Rs300 per month.
I spoke to another van operator of the same
school who charges Rs150 per month from a relative of mine who lives near my
area across the road. But the van operator told me that he had an agreement with
his competitor that he would not cross the road as certain areas had been
divided between them" informed Mrs Farhan.
Another area neglected by the
school owners, local authorities and even parents is the physical condition or
in other words, fitness of vehicles used for transporting children to schools
and back to their residences. In order to minimize the expenses, owners of
school vans have also stopped keeping any helper to assist the children climb
into the van and step down.
Most of the drivers, always in a hurry to
meet the deadline of schools, demonstrate a high degree of negligence in
ensuring that the student just picked up has properly taken his seat. As far as
overloading is concerned, they say owing to inflation, high fuel prices and
large number of children, they are compelled to transport "as many children as
possible." The News
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| Education News | | Updated: 25 May, 2012 |
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