Schools can’t be held responsible for road accidents, feel stakeholders

Nagpur: School bus service is not limited to schools on the outskirts any more, as parents have shown preference for this mode of transport even for schools located in the heart of the city. Responsibility of keeping kids seated inside the bus, safe from abuse or bullying is shared by the school, but responsibility for what happens outside is a grey area.
Unaided School Forum (USF), whose members include some of the big brand schools in Maharashtra, says road accidents cannot be ‘blamed’ on schools. Subhash Chandra Kedia, honorary secretary of USF, said, “It’s a major tragedy whenever someone loses their life, but I appeal that anger against the incident must not be misdirected. Whether the accident happens a few meters from the school or a few kilometres, how can a school principal be blamed? The principal is not controlling the vehicle nor the driver nor the traffic movement on a public road, so it’s absolutely wrong to point the finger at any school in such incidents.”
Samar Jog, president of Schoolbus Owners Association, feels that school management can still play a crucial role in avoiding an incident like that on Tuesday. “As soon as the school ends, all students naturally swarm to the exit gate. Personal vehicles, autos, school vans all clog up the exit gates and this makes movement of school buses very risky. School management must ensure that those who commute by school bus are let off 15 minutes early, so a big chunk of student traffic around the vicinity is reduced. As for accidents which happen somewhere else on city roads, we have to take it up case-by-case, because the reason for that could be anything,” said Jog.
Afsar Khan, president of School Van Owners Association, said traffic management outside premises is the only solution to avoid similar incidents. “If we are talking about accidents in the vicinity of schools, then current system where a thousand or more students exit at the same time has to be stopped. Hardly one or two guards are kept outside, if at all, whose focus is on ensuring that the main gate is not blocked so there’s no time to manage safety aspect of kids,” said Khan.
CBSE does have guidelines for school bus facilities similar to those of state board, but these focus on safety of students inside the bus. ICSE board officials did not respond to TOI’s queries on whether they too have such guidelines.
Lawyer Firdos Mirza, a legal expertise on school bus issues and education, said, “Schools can also be held responsible for accidents if the bus was plying in violation of rules. Else, it’s just an accident case involving the driver alone.” He also questioned why parents send their kids to faraway schools, which potentially adds to safety issues. “Under Right To Education Act, schools are available in every 1km (urban) and 3km (rural),” he said.
Officiating RTO Ravindra Bhuyar stressed that only parents and schools can curtail these accidents. Citing an example, he said a single autorickshaw carrying nearly six to seven children has become a common sight in the city. “We believe it is not only the schools but also the parents’ duty to ensure the lives of children are not endangered. The parents must avoid sending their children in overcrowded vehicles. Even schools must discourage such a practice,” he pointed out.
RTO officials say the best they can do is ensure that all buses or school vans plying have proper documentation. Some 35% vehicles engaged in transporting students in city limits do not have valid fitness certificates, reveals data compiled by regional transport office (Nagpur city) and deputy RTO east office.
According to the data, the city has 557 registered buses and 1,246 vans. All these vehicles had obtained valid permits to ferry school children in their vehicles. Of the 1,803 vehicles, only 1,177 have obtained the fitness certificates. Some 626 vehicles, including vans and buses, were reportedly ferrying schoolchildren.
Bhuyar said the RTO has so far detained 40 buses for violating rules and regulations of Motor Vehicles Act. He further claimed that RTO had issued instructions to the education department to keep monitoring schools, as they will have to form exclusive parent-teacher associations to discuss issues relating to school transport for the safety of children.
“Schools are mandated to put in place supervisory apparatus along with mandated physical setup for school buses. It is mandatory for all schools to constitute a PTA headed by the principal with parents as its members. The association shall meet once a month, and the minutes of the meeting forwarded to school level transport committees, which work under the state education officer,” he said.
BOX
NUMBER GAME
Vehicles---Total---Fitness—Pending Fitness
Buses---557---407---150
Vans---1,246---870---476