Focus on student safety: Ministry tightens safety regulations for buses

NUTMEG: Once schools reopen next week, stricter rules for buses will come into effect, officials said.

In preparation for the new school year 2024/2025, student transportation is a top priority for the Ministry of Education as it aims to provide students with a pleasant and safe learning environment.

The Ministry has focused on basic procedures to improve the quality and efficiency of school transportation, including renewing contracts, providing new transportation that meets safety standards, and implementing road safety training programs for drivers and students.

Khamis Al-Hadidi, Director General of the Directorate General of Projects and Services, said that the ministry had formed committees from various education directorates to review the current school transportation resources. It had also renewed contracts for over 20,000 school buses and provided 800 additional school transportation resources to meet the increasing demand and open new school buildings at a cost of OMR 4,800,000.

Al-Hadidi added: “In order to improve the school transportation service and address the challenges that affect the educational process to ensure maximum student satisfaction, the Ministry of Education has signed a contract with Karwa Cars Company and Oman Development Bank to replace old school vehicles. “A total of 5,000 school transportation vehicles will be replaced within five years, including 1,000 vehicles in the 2024/2025 academic year,” he added.

The Director General said that the ministry had established safety requirements for the new means of student transport.

There are automatic guidance boards at the rear and around the bus to indicate when the bus has stopped to students when boarding and alighting. In addition, the buses are equipped with air conditioning, a first aid kit, automatic tracking, sensing and monitoring devices with high specifications and technologies and have a fire extinguisher in accordance with current road safety regulations as per the requirements of the Royal Oman Police.

The drivers of these buses are gradually trained in preventive driving courses in coordination with one of the specialized training institutes.

Khamis Al-Hadidi also pointed out that under the Preventive Driving Program, the Ministry continues to train school bus drivers in collaboration with the Road Safety Institute and the Oman Oil Development Company to familiarize them with the latest driving and safety practices, which contributes to creating a safe and reliable traffic environment.

During the past academic year, the Ministry trained 400 drivers at the level of the Directorates of Education in the various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman. The training introduced a number of topics and activities aimed at improving their skills and competencies, thereby increasing safety on the road.

On the other hand, in the new school year, the Ministry continues the implementation of the (VIA) program project in cooperation with (Shell Oman), which was implemented in four schools in the 2023/2022 school year and will be implemented in 33 schools in different governorates of the Sultanate, targeting approximately 1,320 students.

This programme is a global road safety education programme aimed at students aged 10 to 18. It aims to teach them safe road behaviour through interaction and the formulation of creative road safety messages, as well as the development of action plans for the implementation of road safety measures and school environments in order to avoid accidents, understand the concept of safe road behaviour and protect themselves.

To achieve the objectives of this program, the Ministry, in collaboration with the Royal Oman Police, represented by the Road Safety Institute Department, will conduct training for teachers and supervisors in the Education Directorates of the governorates at the beginning of the first semester of the current academic year.