Mwasalat's 'Child Check System' to make school buses in Oman safer

Muscat: To protect children from being left behind on school buses, Mwasalat has installed a “Child Check System” in its buses.
A total of 588,339 male and female students in 1,129 public schools in different governorates of the Sultanate started the new academic year of 2017-2018 on Sunday.
The number of schools reached 1,129 this year, while the number of teachers stood at 56,000 and the administrative and technical staff touched 10,641.
The bus operator said it is trying out a new system so that students get to and from school safely. “The purpose is to make sure students are never left behind on school buses,” said a senior official of Mwasalat.
Brand new alarms are now working in around 325 school buses in Oman.
Immediately after the school students have been dropped, the driver has to get to the back of the bus and deactivate an alarm, scanning for children along the way. “It forces drivers to get out of their seat and walk the bus,” an official from Mwasalat said.
If a driver forgets and walks off the bus before deactivating, the alarm will be switched on, which will alert everyone.
Officials say the new systems are especially important, considering some unfortunate incidents that have happened over the last few years, where students have gotten left on the bus.
“We care about the students and student safety, and we wanted to make sure that nothing [bad happens],” the official explained.
Officials said that child safety will give concerned parents some peace-of-mind.
Mwasalat currently operates and manages around 212 school buses for the Ministry of Education (MoE), 35 buses for a private school and 78 buses from the Sultan Qaboos University.
The buses are also equipped with IVMS technology, which monitors the movement of the bus and its drivers. “Besides the IVMS facility, which was launched few years ago, this is new,” the official said.
In 2016, a toddler died after the driver forgot to drop him at his school in Seeb. In 2015, a four-year-old girl died from suffocation after being left alone on a bus in Bid Bid, near Nizwa.
Following the tragedy, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) came up with an online campaign to ensure the safety of children.
“Bus drivers should make sure that all the children have disembarked from the bus before they lock and leave the vehicle,” the ROP had tweeted on its official Twitter handle at that time.
In 2014, two children died in similar incidents. “Transporting children is a job which needs extra care. The children always need some help, and only a few of them can handle the situation alone. So, we should be more careful and alert,” a transporter in Muscat said.
According to him, an assistant is a must in school buses and he should take extra care for the safety of the children. “Children are of small age. They need support. We have to take care of them, or else such incidents will be repeated,” he said.