Roadblocks to school

The strike observed by the All Pakistan School Van Service Association on Friday morning, with school vans not running in Karachi, kept thousands of children out of school that day. Their learning was disrupted through no fault of their own, but due to a far larger problem which cannot be solved by the children, their parents, the schools, the transporters or indeed any group working on its own. A holistic strategy, overseen by the government, needs to be developed. A move towards this was made when the transporters met the DIG traffic on Friday, and agreed to halt the strike action for now. Many private schools also remained open on Saturday to make up for the lost day. So far, there has been agreement on some minor issues, but the main one remains unresolved. Further talks are to be held. The problem essentially arose from the Standard Operating Procedures laid down by the Karachi district government for school vans, stating among other measures that they could not use CNG or LPG kits.
While schools agreed to help enforce the rules, the van owners had many complaints. They insist that the ‘no CNG’ rule must be extended to all private vehicles and argue that costs would rise if CNG and LPG were banned. This is a problem the government needs to explore in depth. While the ushering in of CNG as fuel in the mid-2000s was a mistake, it is not one for which the people should be held responsible. The attempt to now shift back to petrol, the prices for which rise sporadically, is problematic and adds to the burden of parents who already struggle to send children to schools. We need logical solutions. It is unclear why the school buses once run by governments could not be maintained. It should also be the duty of private schools, which charge high fees, to provide transport to and from school for their pupils. At present, parents have few choices but to send their children to school often using unsafe transport. The urban school transport problem is very serious. It should not just be ignored but a consensus built so our children can reach their places of study in safety.