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| Sunday, 6 March 2005 |
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Investigations reveal school vans overcrowded : Educational authorities urge action by Anton Nonis Educational Authorities are embittered over the tremendous agony children have to undergo while attending school in private vans. They urge the law enforcers to step in and put a stop to this evil. It has been estimated that there are about 6000 vans transporting children to various schools in Colombo daily. Western Province Director of Education, Dixon Fernando told the `Sunday Observer' that investigations carried out by schools in Colombo had revealed that these vans transporting children are overcrowded too often. In some instances, it is worse. There is hardly any space even for breathing. A female teacher attached to a leading school in Colombo said there are about 70 vans that bring children to the school. She also agreed that all such vans are crowded. Analysis carried out by some schools have revealed that such situations may bring a drop in the child's performance at school. The situation is still worse as the children who use this mode of transportation are mostly children in their tender ages or young girls. It is also learnt that children in the lower grades had to wait for long hours after school until the school session of the upper classes ended. Besides overcrowding, the van operators also charge high rates from the parents. It has been revealed that most of the vans charge about Rs.700 or more per month even if the distance to be covered was just a kilometre. They are also equally audacious to charge the full amount even during the school vacation. The parents have no choice but to make payment. Most school vans are also believed to be speeding and violating other traffic rules. The school authorities want the law enforcers to penalise the offending van operators. |
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