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In Chennai, students go to schools in packed vehicles, no safety for them
Posted on: 15/Jun/2019 9:44:58 AM
The school students in Chennai are now going to their respective schools in packed vehicles. It had caught the attention of many now as these students are not travelling safely. The safety of the school students has taken back seat now to such an extent that it is now said that a safe transport to school is more difficult to find than finding a good school.
It is important to mention that Chennai has got just 2300 school buses but the total number of school going children is above 10 lakhs. This comes to one bus for as many as 430 students.
It is well known that the transport corporations have provided free students passes for the school students to travel in the government buses but the government buses were used by the students studying in the government schools. Point is students studying in many private schools in Chennai depend mostly on the vans and autos.
The shocking piece of information is the schools do not want to take the responsibility of the student safety when they travel to their schools. It is revealed that the fleet size of the school vehicles have been decreasing slowly over the years. According to the schools it is clear that increasing maintenance cost and stringent safety norms were mainly responsible for managing a fleet of buses.
As per R. Vishalakshi, president of TN Private Matriculation Schools Association, when compared to other commercial vehicles the vehicle and the operating cost are same for the school buses. She revealed that the schools do not collect even half of that. R. Vishalakshi explained about how the parents opt for school buses only if the buses drop their kids at the door steps and how only the private vehicles could do that. She finally spoke about how transport fees charged are no way closer to that spent on the buses.
It was pointed out by Mr. M.R. Vijayabaskar, state transport minister, that there was no rule regulating bus fees. He added that if there was a surge in demand then the government would consider framing them.
The truth is parents who could not drop their kids at schools and then pick them up every day opt for illegal and unsafe vehicles. A parent whose son is studying in a CBSE school in Nandambakkam in Chennai revealed that autos were cheap. He added that as many as 6 kids travel in the autos and each parent pays Rs 500 each. He threw light on how this amount would be three times more by taking the school bus. Point is in the last 3 years in TN, as many as 6400 vehicles have been booked for overloading and this was as per the official data.
