No easy ride for UAE's school bus drivers

Dubai: The safety of school children continues to be a concern.

Parents often complain school bus drivers and attendants are putting their children's lives at risk.

School principals say drivers have to deal with a lot of stress, often induced by parents, which can also prove dangerous on the road.

This highlights the necessity of recruiting well-trained drivers.

As the debate ensues on what measures are needed to prevent accidents involving school buses and children, parents, bus drivers and bus attendants often blame one another.

Tragic stories of pupils getting knocked down by school buses or pupils being seriously injured on buses due to the absence of bus attendants or their negligence, have been making headlines recently.

Gulf News is bringing a series of articles to its readers that will get all parties involved, allowing everyone to give their point of view.

This includes schools and parents, attendants and school bus drivers, the pupils themselves and the authorities.

Training

The first in this series looks at what schools and parents have to say on the very important issue of school buses and safety.

Abha Sehgal, principal of the Delhi Private School in Sharjah, said their school provides training sessions for its bus drivers twice a year.

Every bus has an attendant and his job is to make sure that children are seated.

The attendant also assists children when they board and alight from the bus, and occasionally helps them to cross the street.

"The drivers should only drive away when they get the green signal from the attendants. Both the drivers and the attendants are to report any problems with the bus or with the pupils to the school immediately.

"They are not supposed to touch any child. They are allowed to talk to them, and if they feel the children are not listening, they should report this to the school. They are trained to be vigilant."

She said parents are often found hassling the driver and they seem not to understand that drivers should not be put under stress.

"Often there is a verbal battle going on between the driver and the parent.

"There are times when the parent gets onto the bus and threatens the driver that he would lose his job or be deported.

"This is unnecessary. Drivers may have made a mistake but there is a way to deal with this. The parents call the driver on his mobile and disturb him while he is still driving. This causes more stress," said Sehgal.

Al Sa'ada Public School is one of quite a number of schools in the public schools system that lack supervisors in their buses, said the principal.

They have compensated for the absence of an attending supervisor by placing two students from higher grades (grade 4 or 5) to help organise student seating, as all students have to be seated in their designated place.

Supervisor

These are allocated at the beginning of the academic year.

"We have supervisors attending in the parking lot to ensure they all get onto the bus safely and that no one is left behind.

"However, it would be better to place a supervisor with the girls in the bus, especially as we have children as young as five years old," said Hind Lootah, school principal.

Fawzia Al Khaja, vice-principal of an elementary public school in Dubai, said recently an Emirati parent insisted that his daughter be dropped off at their doorstep as the bus driver used to stop on the opposite side of the road. It took him more than half an hour because of heavy traffic to make a U-turn.

"We see many situations similar to this one. If we had a supervisor she or he could have easily walked the child to the other side of the road without having to wait that long. You will notice that most accidents, if not all, occur because of the absence of a supervisor," she said.

In response to a Gulf News story on a five-year-old who died in a school bus accident earlier this month, Fatima Al Merri, CEO of the Schools Agency, said: "The Dubai Schools Agency deplores the accidental death of a schoolchild and supports all efforts by the Dubai police and the RTA to ensure road safety and that all drivers are well-trained. We are working across government departments on ways to improve standards in these areas.

"We will not rest until we can assure the safety and security of all students."

All voices heard: Gulf News campaign

Gulf News is bringing a series of articles to its readers that will get all parties involved in the ongoing arguments over school buses giving their point of view. This includes schools and parents, attendants and school bus drivers, pupils and the authorities.

Dubai Vinisha Diwan, an Indian. said: "The driver of the school bus which my five-year-old daughter uses is rude to her. Every day I get a complaint that she had been shouted at by the driver for getting onto the bus late. There are days when she makes excuses for not going to school by bus."

Khuloud, an Emirati, said: "My boys are a little naughty, I must admit. The oldest is nine and the younger one is seven. One day the younger one said he had been shouted at by the school bus attendant. I complained to the school."

Lisa, a Sri Lankan mother, said: "My daughter is in grade 2 and one day she complained that the attendant had pinched her on her thighs. I was furious. I reported this to the school and now take her myself."

Do you know of any international best practice? How could they be implemented in the UAE?

Many of the students who live on the same street should all meet at one point (like when you assemble for the fire alarm), and be picked up and dropped off at the same place. Something I feel strongly about is that parents should teach their child how to be safe on the bus. The children don't need to be running around the bus, not only are they putting their own lives at stake, but other children's lives.
Abdul
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 31, 2008, 14:03

Is it enough to blame the drivers? Isn't it better to ask parents why they never put their children into appropriate car seats and never seem to use seat belts for them? You can see it day by day, children climbing and jumping in (fast) moving cars, and you can see the same pictures in school buses. Raise parents' awareness to teach their children how to behave in a bus, raise their awareness to use seat belts and car seats for their children, don't blame everything on the drivers.
Livia
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: March 31, 2008, 13:57

At present, big buses are used by the schools for the pick up/drop off of the students. Instead, small vans (maximum of 15 to 20 children) can be used so that the driver himself can take much more care. The delay in reaching a particular area will also be avoided.
M.
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 31, 2008, 13:31

My son too has complained to me on several occasions that the bus driver speaks a lot of smut and is rude. He has also asked me to change his school so that he does not have to face this bus driver. I have complained to the school about this but nothing was done about it.
Richard
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 31, 2008, 13:24

Special care for very young children should be given and separate uniforms for them should be introduced as awareness to all about careful driving. Children can be trained well about the traffic system and road crossing.
Muhammad
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 31, 2008, 09:26

I would like to suggest these things: Representatives of the ministry in schools do random checking of buses as part of their duties. A GPS can be installed in all buses and parents should be able to get the locations of the buses through their mobile phones. A recording device can be installed in the bus to record conversations as well as "shouting" incidents. Crossing streets should not be allowed. A child should always be dropped on his/her side of the street, even if it means a delay or more fuel consumption. The route and timings of the bus should be properly planned to consider this. Parents should also be told of this so they can decide or suggest something.
Enrico
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 31, 2008, 08:22