The Portfolio Committee on Transport has called on the Department of Transport (DoT) to prioritise the scholar transport policy by the end of the year.
The Committee Chairperson Ms Dikeledi Magadzi said the policy had to be fast-tracked, and that the Department needed to take full control of the duty of transporting learners. “Learners, especially those attending farm schools and traveling long distances to access education, suffer as a result of the absence of this policy. Their safety and their lives are forever in danger because they travel in converted bakkies that are perpetually used in rural provinces like the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal,” said Ms Magadzi.
Government has decided to shift the function of transporting learners traveling longer than 5km radius to school, from the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to the DoT. Ms Magadzi said the responsibility of the DBE should only be the curriculum and education.
“DBE’s vision of quality educations is so crucial to the future of South Africa and should not be impacted upon by side policies that are not of a classroom nature. DoT is better situated to deal with matters related to transport,” she said.
She said converted bakkies were not an option as they were not conducive for transporting learners because they endangered the lives of the learners.
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