UAE | Education
Indian school tells senior pupils to get off its buses
Parents have said that they are annoyed by a request made by the Indian High School (IHS), Dubai to its senior pupils to make their own travel arrangements.
- By Sunita Menon, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:05 March 15, 2009
- Image Credit: Arshad ali/Gulf News
- An Indian High School bus arrives at the school in Garhoud, Dubai. The school management says transport is an optional service provided by the institute and they have raised the fee to meet rising costs.
Dubai: Parents have said that they are annoyed by a request made by the Indian High School (IHS), Dubai to its senior pupils to make their own travel arrangements.
Parents debating the school's request said that they prefer their children to travel by school bus in keeping with the safety aspect and traffic. The parents also complained about the school's increase in transport fees.
The school management said the main reason for requesting senior pupils to organise their own transport to school is because they are confronting an enormous strain on the existing fleet of 79 buses. The school said the increased transport fee is essential to meet the running costs of their transport fleet.
Under the revised transportation fee, pupils commuting within Dubai will pay Dh185 instead of Dh135, and those commuting from Sharjah will pay Dh300 instead of Dh275.
Ashok Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, IHS, said that the school, if possible, would rather not run the transport service.
"We made it very clear in our prospectus that the school will not give seats to pupils from Ajman and Sharjah, despite that we provide them admission," he said.
"Those who attend our school from those emirates commute through private buses. I would like to assure parents that the school will not change any of the bus routes and more routes will be added. We will even try to accommodate those who apply for the school bus, but having said that, let me add that the sale of uniforms and books as well as providing school transport is not our business.
"Providing buses for pupils by the school is an optional service. We have to meet the expenses of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), the salaries of the bus drivers and their accommodation etc.
"The parents who have an issue with school bus transportation should try to understand that we have not increased anything for the compulsory services like the tuition fees," he said.
The Indian High School at 49 years is the oldest expatriate school in Dubai with 9,000 pupils, of which 7,500 use the school transport and the remainder make their own arrangements.
"If the pupils are willing to take public transport for the school's extra-curricular activities or get dropped off by their parents, they can also do the same to attend classes in the morning. I know many pupils who walk to school at the Oud Metha Road from Karama. The RTA buses stop right in front of our school. Taking into consideration all these things we made a request to the senior pupils to make their arrangements to commute to school," said Kumar.
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