I studied at a residential school. No everyday school-bus rides for me.
When I started teaching, I was exposed to this phenomenon. Large usually packed buses were a common sight. I would cringe and wonder why it had to be like this- why couldn’t schools care more for the kids?
As Principal I realised what the situation was. High Fuel costs and large distances from school to home (especially for popular schools) made the costs prohibitive. I led a 2 day exercise in manipulating bus routes for maximum efficiency and minimum cost. We realised that if we provided comfortable transport (3 children to 2 seats designed to seat 2 adults), the buses were changed every 5 years and we paid traffic cesses as demanded by law, the cost of transportation per child per bus in the city of Kapurthala, Punjab (average one way route distance 48kms) would be Rs. 900 per month , almost what the parents paid for a months tuition!
This was considerably higher than the Rs. 425 they currently paid. Parents refused. The board refused to okay our plan.
The plan to improve the transport was abandoned and the kids continued to travel on older buses, their numbers to seat ratio making them distinctly uncomfortable.
Comfortable school-bus travel remains the preserve of high-fee private schools in the larger cities of India. Most of the rest travel in packed schoolbuses or by other vehicles like the ubiquitous cycle-rickshaw or the auto-rickshaw.
Unsafe. Inane. Tragic. Fun?
Quintessentially India.
(image courtesy: Akshay at Trivial Matters)
Vivek, Your remarks about busing school children in India make me marvel at my own tunnel vision. As a board member and retired teacher, I unconsciously think that we have these challenges only in the USA. It rarely occurs to me (possibly, never) that the rest of the world, so different on the surface, is really so much the same. The education conversation should be a world-wide one, but I’m not sure how to overcome the language barriers. (Perhaps enough of the world speaks English to at least make a start.)
I’ve been at the Oregon coast for the past few days, off the grid. But since I returned home and found your comment (the only one, by the way) on my Carnival post, I’ve read several of your posts and your “About” page, and I want to read more.
With regard to your comment on about heuristics, I need a bit of enlightenment. You would be doing me a great service to provide a little more detail. I may have missed the obvious, but I’m good at that.
Thanks, and hello!
Repairman, thanks for coming in! Its a pleasure to have as a reader someone with so many years of experience in teaching! I look forward to you being here more often.
You spoke of tunnel vision- it’s me that applies to. I was quite surprised when you said that the US has similar bus problems. Could you enlighten me further?
Years ago, virtually all school children could ride buses to school. For the last decade and a half, only students who live over a mile away can be serviced here in my district. The rest either walk or ride with parents who clog up traffic lanes near schools each morning and afternoon.
Some routes feature crowded buses, but never more than safety regulations permit. Fuel costs are outrageous (to us, anyway — about $3/gal.), and the cost of vehicles and transportation employees continues to rise. We never have enough money, but we are transparent and accountable for that which we do spend.
The spectre of outsourcing busing continues to loom because private companies insist that they can provide identical service for less money since they don’t have medical or retirement costs equal to the school district’s. (After our recent experience with outsourced custodial services, I’m permanently “off” outsourcing school services, including busing!)
Providing adequate transportation to all school children world-wide appears to be a common challenge.
Thanks Repairman! I would have never thought that the same problems exists where you are.
We tried outsourcing, but quickly realised that private players look to maximise profit very quickly. They would also delay maintenance (safety issues), delay adding extra buses on crowded routes (until the bus was bursting with kids), not pay staff well (circumventing labour laws, superannuation payments etc) even after defined service level agreements drawn up by lawyers.
The Indian judicial system makes taking people to court, even if you win, Pyrrhic victories so that was out of the question.
Changing service provides mid-term is a logistical nightmare, so you are tied in to a service provider for the one school year at least. Even after that, the switching cost is very high!
I wonder if innovative solutions exist anywhere?