By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Ministry of Transport and Aviation has disclosed plans to distribute 50 school buses it recently acquired ahead of resumption of schooling for the 2019/2020 academic year.
Schools are expected to reopen on 16 September, according to a statement from the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education.
Officials said on Thursday that every district will have been handed their share of the buses by September 13.
Kabineh M. Kallon, Minister of Transport and Aviation, told journalists at the weekly government press briefing at the Ministry of Information and Communication that the buses will be handed over to the local councils. He said a total of 47 buses have been allocated to the 16 districts, with three being kept as reserve in case it emerged that a district needs more than it is allocated.
The distribution of the buses will be done as follows: In the Eastern region: Kenema: five, Kailahun: two, and Kono: three. In the Southern region, Bo will receive six, Bonthe one and Moyamba one. In the Northern region, Bombali will receive three, Falaba one, and Koinadugu one. In the North-Western region, Port Loko will get two, Karene one, and Kambia one.
The Western Area Urban and Western Area Rural will each receive receive 12 and five, respectively.
The minister said the amount of buses allocated to each district was determined by the student population.
“The buses are only for the students and not for the teachers. The teachers are paid at the end of the month but we all know that there are a good number of parents who cannot afford to pay transport fares for their kids, so we want to take that burden away from them,” he stated.
The buses are electronic based. Therefore, according to the ministry, it was part of the procurement agreement that Golden Dragon Company would provide training for the drivers and the mechanics on the effective and efficient use of the buses. Kallon explained that there are functions in the buses like cameras that cannot be operated by local drivers, especially when most of the drivers are not computer literates. Therefore, he noted, a month long training for the drivers, conducted by three Golden Dragon Company experts flown in from China, is under way.
All the buses will be stationed only in district headquarters towns, according to Mr Kallon, who added that the vehicles will be run on a cost recovery basis, meaning that pupils will be required to pay a minimal fee. He said charges per pupil will be determined in due course.
Kallon noted that transportation challenge caused a major setback for the Free Quality Education (FAQ), the flagship program of President Julius Maada Bio. He said this is the reason why the president instructed his ministry to procure the school busses.
The buses were reportedly procured at a cost of US$4.98million from the Golden Dragon Company in China and insured by the National Insurance Company (NIC)
Minister Kallon acknowledged that 50 buses cannot be enough for the whole country, but he said this is just a pilot phase.
For a start, tickets will be issued to passengers. But Minister Kallon said the long term plan is to use a cashless system in terms of revenue collection for the buses. He noted that a bank account will be open for the buses that will be monitored by the Ministry of Finance, Road Transport Cooperation and the Ministry of Education.
At the district level, the government said it has set up committees comprising Chairman of councils or mayors, directors of Education, district officers, provincial secretaries, youth groups, civil society organizations, women’s group, and representatives of the Teachers’ Union, coordinators of the FAQ, as well as the Sierra Leone Police, to ensure proper monitoring of the running and management of the buses.
“We cannot be in Freetown and monitor buses in the provinces and also determine the prices to be paid by the pupils in a particular region,” said Minister Kallon.
© 2019 Politico Online
