Mahendragarh school bus incident: Regulations broken, children’s safety jeopardized

The safety of kids riding school buses has come under scrutiny in light of the Thursday morning traffic accident that claimed the lives of six youngsters in the Unhani hamlet area.

Due to their inability to guarantee the district’s private schools would remain closed on Eid, a national holiday, it has also placed the district’s education officials under fire. Numerous private schools were operating in the district today, according to sources, but district officials did nothing to stop them.

“It is required by protocol that there be a male and a female staff member from the school in question on the bus, however, at the time of the incident, there was no staff member there. In 2023, the bus was also cited for breaking rules, he continued.

Even Education Minister Seema Trikha acknowledged that the opening of schools on a gazetted holiday was a flagrant example of carelessness and that the school had previously received a show-cause notice in this respect in an interview with the media after her visit to the wounded youngsters in Rewari. “Today I should not have seen any schools operating. In this context, we will undoubtedly take the necessary steps,” she said.

Social activist Advocate Deepak said that in addition to education, district transportation authorities could not escape their duty to guarantee that all school buses follow the “Surakshit School Vahan Policy” in order to protect the children who attend school.

According to the laws, a conductor must be assigned to a bus in order to assist the driver and notify the school administration if the driver is not operating the bus safely. However, many private schools do not have conductors. A person’s experience and prior behavior are carefully examined before they are appointed as a driver, in addition to the legal requirements related to their driving license.

This is because it is not acceptable to risk the safety of the children by assigning a school bus to an irresponsible, inexperienced, or careless driver. However, a lot of schools employ drivers without the necessary documentation, he said.

The Tribune was informed by a police officer that an initial inquiry had shown there was no conductor on board the bus at the time of the accident.

Deputy Commissioner Monika Gupta stated that although it was standard procedure for all private schools to conduct a driver’s character verification prior to hiring him, in this instance the school administration’s negligence had been discovered, and consequently appropriate action would be taken against them.

The sad tragedy has horrified the proprietors of all private schools in the area, according to Anil Kaushik, President of the Progressive Private Schools’ Association, Narnaul.

“We have summoned an urgent meeting of our association’s office bearers for this evening to address the issue of children’s safety while riding school buses. In order to reduce the likelihood of traffic accidents and increase schoolchildren’s safety, the conference may potentially make some crucial choices, he said.

Kaushik urged all private school operators in the state to exercise caution while hiring drivers for their buses. The security of the kids and other staff members riding the buses is our first concern, therefore they need to confirm the drivers’ previous behavior from various sources and make sure they don’t have a drinking problem.