‘Bus fare hike may cause students to skip extracurricular activities’

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KUCHING: With the recent hike in fuel prices and subsequent increase of school bus fare, parents with tight budget might resort to cutting down their children’s involvement in extracurricular activities (eca).

While there have yet to be cases where parents fail to send their children to school due to high transportation cost, there were already instances when parents did not send their children to attend extracurricular activities because they could not afford the costlier school bus fare.

This has been the worry of Sarawak Teachers’ Union president Jisin Nyud who has seen it happening and has been expecting that there would be more of such cases with the recent increase of fuel price by RM0.20 per litre.

“That is why I think school bus fare should be standardised according to distance and areas,” Jisin told The Borneo Post yesterday in response to the recent announcement that Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) would not regulate school bus fare but let school bus operators and parents to decide, effective next year.

As the state Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (LPKP) is an independent body and has the option of not following SPAD’s policy, Jisin hoped that LPKP would take into account the parental needs before making any major decision.

“Some parents, especially the middle income and low income parents or those with many children, would be affected by the fare increase which is engendered by fuel hike. And indirectly, education of their children would also be affected.

“I would prefer the old system when school bus fare is being regulated and monitored by higher authorities. If it is not monitored where some irresponsible operators decide on very unreasonable fare, it would affect the attendance of some school children in extracurricular activities or any activities outside school hours,” said Jisin.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Committee of Management of Kuching Chung Hua Middle Schools No. 1, 3 and 4 Richard Wee called for a transparent formula on how school bus operators charge the parents.

“With fuel hike, it is understandable that school bus operators may want to increase their fare. In this situation, I would like to appeal to responsible operators to increase the fare reasonably,” said Wee, who preferred school bus fare to be regulated by the authorities.

Citing the unreasonable price hike of ‘kolo mee’ (a local noodle dish) after the increase in price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), Wee said such cases should be avoided by working out a formula which could justify the increase.

“The school bus operators must work out a formula to explain how the increase came about. Then it would be easier for parents to understand how and why they have been charged,” said Wee.

He added school bus fare hike would affect mainly primary school students as secondary school students could opt for public transport.

“Our primary school students rely heavily on school bus service. I hope the school bus operators would be responsible and come to a consensus with parents before imposing any fare increase,” said Wee.

So far, he said, Chung Hua Middle Schools No. 1, 3 and 4 have yet to receive any complaint on services provided by school bus operators.