The recent increase in fatal road accidents involving scholar transport vehicles has turned the spotlight on the dangers pupils face on their daily commute to school. Their safety is seriously compromised as they have the “Sword of Damocles” dangling over their heads every day. The harsh truth is that when parents bid their children goodbye in the morning, there is no guarantee that they will return home safely when school is over.
The year began with tragedy when 14 pupils were killed when the driver of a private scholar transport vehicle was involved in a horrific accident while allegedly overtaking on the wrong side of the road. This was not the first fatal accident involving scholar transport vehicles, and if traffic laws are not enforced and transport operator compliance regulations strengthened, it certainly won’t be the last. These unroadworthy “mobile coffins” are a sad reflection of the systemic failure of the Department of Education (DoE) to provide a safe mode of transport for pupils.
Pupils in SA utilise several means of transport to get to school. While the more affluent are transported to school by their parents, the vast majority walk to school. Other pupils use public transport such as buses to get to school.
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Some pupils use the fragmented and poorly-managed national scholar transport programme, while a significant number commute to school via private scholar transport. Both forms of commute place the lives of pupils in jeopardy every single day. In 2015, the national departments of Transport and Basic Education collaborated to establish the National Scholar Transport Programme (NSTP) in South Africa.
It addressed challenges like safety, cost and fraud through formal systems, route planning and monitoring. Its implementation, however, has been fraught with problems and still faces ongoing challenges.
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