Demands dossier of drivers of chartered buses
Putting the security of several students on the line, private schools in Delhi have failed to track and list the names of all the drivers of chartered buses being used to ferry children as it was instructed by the Government in June. The Directorate of Education (DoE) says that despite the lapse of two months, neither any compliance report to the rules laid out by the directorate nor the report on the names of the drivers have been submitted to them. Thus, the Directorate has now sent a warning to these schools to hand over the detailed reports to them immediately else the consequences would be dire.
A total of 1,187 private unaided schools are recognised by the Directorate. However, none of them has sent a report so far. Earlier in June, Additional Director of Education Madhu Teotia had sent across a notice ordering the schools to ensure with immediate effect that 100 per cent verification of drivers and conductors engaged in school buses is given. “They should also provide the details of CC buses or chartered buses engaged by the schools or arranged by the parents for transportation of students or children,” she had said.
However, Teotia has now sent a letter to the same schools expressing her displeasure over the lackadaisical attitude of the schools. She said, “In a circular dated June 10, I had instructed all heads of private unaided schools to take the list of drivers and conductors engaged in vehicles outsourced by schools (chartered buses) and vehicles arranged by parent groups, and get them verified by Delhi Police. The compliance report in this regard was required to be submitted in respective zonal offices of this Directorate within one month of issue of circular. In spite of a lapse of two months time, no report in this regard has been received from the district authorities so far.”
According to the earlier notification, the schools had also been instructed to upload all the details of school buses whether they are school owned, chartered or arranged by parents on the education department’s website. Even details of the bus staff was supposed to be put up on the website. This however, has also not been done when the time for this completion was 15 days.
Taking cognizance of the matter now, Teotia has instructed the heads of schools to submit the compliance report to their respective zonal offices of the Directorate, however this time not giving them any buffer time. She has asked for these reports immediately so that they can be tabled at the forthcoming meeting of the special task force. Meanwhile, most of the schools refused to comment on their callous approach towards the issue and said that they were working towards the aforementioned task.