Packing of School Children Like Sardines into School Buses Must End – AMEND Foundation

AMEND Foundation, a social enterprise operating in Ahafo has bemoaned the dangerous nature of transporting school children to and from school in the country.

The representative of AMEND Foundation ( Infrastructure Development and Road Safety) Hon. Ing. Amoa-Mensah stated that there is the need to secure the transportation of school children to and from school.

In his submission on The newly launched Road Safety Education and Advocacy programme called ‘Kwanso Brebre’ on Success FM ,he said ‘ The Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, School owners and community leaders must discourage the current trend of packing school children like sardines into school buses.

He narrated that, the lack/implementation of an existing policy on student population to school bus provision (ratios) is a major oversight that puts our future leaders at risk and leaves school proprietors and proprietresses to provide unsafe transport services to their students.

The current continuous surge in road accident fatalities requires a hands on and proactive approach with effective interventions to ameliorate the situation.

To this effect, AMEND Foundation proposes for a policy to link the number of students in a school to the number of school buses. Such an approach would prevent school owners from only looking at monetary benefits to be accrued from new admissions but also to think of adequate provision of school buses.

An increase in the number of school buses per school will reduce the magnitude of any road accidents that may affect school buses.

He also highlighted the fact that more school buses on our roads would reduce the number of parents who have to drive their children to school during peak hours hence reducing traffic congestion especially in cities.

He also commended volunteers of AMEND Foundation, a social enterprise in their efforts to promote road safety in the Ahafo enclave.

Source: ahafo news