Friday 13 / September / 2024
MUSCAT: Stricter regulations governing buses will be in place once the schools reopen next week, the officials said.
In preparation for the new academic year 2024/2025, transportation of school students is the foremost priority of the Ministry of Education as it seeks to ensure a comfortable and safe educational environment for them.
The Ministry has focused on basic procedures to improve the quality and efficiency of school transportation, including renewing contracts, providing new transportation that meets the safety standards, and implementing training programmes for drivers and students on road safety.
Khamis Al-Hadidi, Director-General of the Directorate-General of Projects and Services, explained that the Ministry has formed committees from various educational directorates to examine current school transportation means, and has renewed contracts for more than 20,000 school buses, and provided (800) additional school transportation means to meet the growing needs and the opening of new school buildings, at a cost of OMR 4,800,000.
Al-Hadidi added: “To improve the school transportation service, address the challenges affecting the educational process for maximum satisfaction of students, the Ministry of Education signed a contract with Karwa Cars Company and the Oman Development Bank to replace old school vehicles. “A total of 5,000 school transportation vehicles will be replaced within five years, with 1,000 vehicles to be replaced during the academic year 2024/2025,” he added.
The Director-General said that the Ministry has set security and safety requirements for the new means of student transportation.
There are automatic guidance boards at the back and around the bus to indicate when it has stopped while students are getting on and off, as well as providing air conditioning units, a first aid box, and automatic tracking, sensing and monitoring devices with high specifications and technologies, with the provision of a fire extinguisher in accordance with the traffic safety regulations in force according to the requirements of the Royal Oman Police.
Drivers of these buses will be gradually trained in preventive driving courses in coordination with one of the specialised training institutes.
Khamis Al-Hadidi also pointed out that the Ministry continues to train school bus drivers within the preventive driving programme in cooperation with the Traffic Safety Institute and the Oman Oil Development Company to make them aware of the latest driving and safety practices, which contributes to creating a safe and reliable transportation environment.
In the past academic year, the Ministry trained 400 drivers at the level of educational directorates in the various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman, and the training included presenting a set of topics and activities that aim to improve their skills and competencies to enhance safety and security on the road.
On the other hand, the Ministry continues during the new academic year to implement the (VIA) programme project in cooperation with (Shell Oman), which was conducted in four schools during the academic year 2023/2022 and will be implemented in 33 schools in various governorates of the Sultanate and will target approximately 1,320 students.
This programme is a global road safety education program targeting students aged between 10-18 years old, with the aim of introducing them to safe road behaviors to avoid accidents, understand the concept of safe road behavior and protect themselves, through interaction and creating creative road safety messages, and creating action plans to implement road safety measures and school environments.
To achieve the objectives of this program, the Ministry will implement training sessions for teachers and supervisors in the educational directorates in the governorates in cooperation with the Royal Oman Police, represented by the Traffic Safety Institutes Department, at the beginning of the first semester of the current academic year.
