Transport For Students
Transportation for students is a major issue for both parents and children. There are numerous educational institutions in Dhaka city. Every day, thousands of students face a number of hurdles to get to their classes on time. Some schools, colleges and universities do provide transport services for their students, which not only help to cut down on traffic jams, but are also safe and convenient. However, there are few public transports available exclusively for students.
Most college and university students are mature enough to travel to their campuses all by themselves. But the same cannot be said about schoolchildren. Here, both parents and students have to consider factors like security, cost and most importantly, reaching school on time.
Saima Nazifa, 10, was waiting for a bus with her mother at Mazar Road at Gabtoli. She is a student of class 5 at YWCA Girls School and College at Green Square (Dhanmondi). Every day, she has to wait more than 30 minutes to get a bus. Travelling by auto-rickshaw or using ride services like Uber is not always economically viable. I try to use public transport as often as possible, Saima told this reporter.
There are countless other students like Saima Nazifa in this city who have to go through similar hassle daily to get to class as their educational institutions do not provide any transport facility. But then there are some that do, and the service is welcomed by parents and students alike.
My daughter goes to Holy Cross College at Tejgaon. We live at Postogola (in Old Dhaka). The college has a good transport service for the students. Every day, a microbus picks up my daughter, and later, drops her at home after her classes. Usually, a teacher accompanies them when they make the drop, Nasim Sikder, a parent, told YI. We have to pay Taka 3,000 every month, and I am satisfied with the service. Public transportation would be more expensive if we didnt get this facility from the college. Security is another issue that parents are always concerned about. There are some students who are as young as 10 years old who have to travel to school from one corner of the capital to another.
Sadia Sharmeen, another parent, said: I have two children and they study at HURDCO International School, which is in Bashundhara where we live. Normally, they travel by a cycle-van provided by the school. Recently, I went to visit my mother in Savar for a few days. Travelling from Savar to Bashundhara was really hard. Then, from my mothers neighbour I came to know that her daughter, Nadira Akhter, who studies in class 2 at Sher-E-Bangla Balika Mahavidyalaya, goes to Agargaon from Savar daily all by herself. Nadira is not alone, there are many children like her who must travel such long distances all by themselves as their schools dont provide any transport facility.
My husband and I both work, so we understand that for working parents its hard to give that extra time to our children. That is why we always make sure our childrens school is close by and that it has good transport facility. We pay Taka 2,000 for the transport service. That being said, every year the school fee is increased and in that situation, one has to sacrifice one thing for another. If the fees here continue to rise like this, then we may have to transfer our kids to some other school outside the Bashundhara residential area. And the new school might not provide transport for its students, Sharmeen added.
Tanvir Faysal, transport officer at Scholastica school, said: We have six buses and students have to pay around Taka 100,000 per year for this service. Most of our students have their own private transport. Mostafizur Rahman, administrative assistant, at Aga Khan School, added: Our school is at Uttara and we have two buses for our students. Students have to pay Taka 7,000 per month for the bus service. However, most of our students use their family cars.
Rabeeya Parvin, a lecturer at Adamjee Cantonment College, informed YI: We do not have any bus services for our students. There are about 6,500 students in our school and college sections, and providing transport for even 10 percent of them is not an easy task. At the moment, we have one bus and that is used for study tours or some emergency purpose. We conducted a survey to see how interested students and parents were in using school transport. It turns out many refused to pay for the service and some didnt want the facility at all. The idea of providing transportation is not financially sound when parents do not want to pay. That is why we are yet to start a transport service. Some well-known schools and colleges charge hefty amounts of money for transport services. They know parents have no other choice. Personally, I believe if we provide transport to our students, then it would be profitable for us.
Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), the state-owned transport company, has only three buses reserved for school students.
We have three buses which are exclusively used for transporting students. Two of the buses ply on the Mirpur-New Market route, while the other runs from Shewra Bazar (Kuril) to Navy Headquarter at Banani. Both students and their parents can use the buses. Meanwhile, these buses do carry other passengers during school hours when students are in class or after classes, M Almas Ali, deputy general manager (operation), BRTC, said. Some educational institutions also hire buses from us. Recently, when our new chairman was asked why we rent out some of our buses, our reply was we do it because our mandate is to provide quality transport services to the people. We believe by renting some of our buses to educational institutions, we are also able to earn more revenue.
About the fare of BRTC school buses, M Jahangir Alam, manager (operation) at Mirpur depot, said: Normally, students pay Taka 5 and parents have to pay Taka 10. There are also plans to increase the number of buses for students, he added.
Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, secretary general of Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association, a non-profit that works with passenger rights, informed YI: It is not mandatory for educational institutions should have transport services for their students. That is why many do not provide this service. Many students get rides in private cars, and those who must use public transports, they face many difficulties. Parents with their own cars often park their vehicles in front of their childrens schools, which creates traffic jams during rush hours. We believe if schools, colleges and universities provide transportation for their students, then we can solve some of the traffic problems of this city. Besides, there should be reduced fares for students, so they will be encouraged to use public buses.
Many of us have witnessed students haggling over bus fares which, sometimes, lead to fights with transport workers. Monwar Hossain, a student of Dhaka College, said: Many buses do take half-fare from students. But I am not sure if there is any law regarding the matter. However, many schoolchildren and university students pay full price for a ticket.
It is very clear most students want their educational institutions to provide them with transportation. Some private universities have started moving to permanent campuses outside the city. In order to meet the demand for transportation, universities like United International University (UIU) are renting BRTC buses, in addition to their own vehicles.
Abu Sadat, public relation office of UIU, said: We have rented 18 double-decker buses, while and our university owns 16 other vehicles. Faizul Rahman, 23, a student of the university, added: We have to pay Taka 1,000 per semester, which is not that much. The rent of a BRTC bus is Taka 8,000 per day and our university needs financial assistance to run this transport service and we appreciated it.
Shohel Ahsan, deputy registrar, Bangladesh University, said: We are very excited to inform you that we have bought one bus for our students. The route of this bus will be from our present campus at Iqbal Road (Mohammadpur) to our main campus at Beribandh Main Road, Adabar. We have plans to increase the number in the coming years. BRTC buses cost Taka 8,000 per day to rent, so many universities like us are thinking about buying their own vehicles.
Then there are universities like Daffodil International University (DIU) that have bought a number of vehicles over the years. Anwar Habib, communication officer of DIU, said: We have 40 buses. Our permanent campus is in Ashulia, so the route is from Dhanmondi to Ashulia. Students have to show their ID card before getting on the bus, and pay a fare according to the distance they are travelling. The highest fare is Taka 25 and we do provide some subsidy for this service.
Jamiul Adnan, 23, a student of Dhaka University, said: During admission every year, we pay Taka 1,700 as transportation fee. All my friends and I believe all educational institutions should provided transport facilities for their students. Our university bus service plies up to Savar and Gazipur. For students who live a long way from the campus, this service helps them to save both time and money. Female students, in particular, feel safe as no one dares to misbehave with them onboard. Most of the public universities have good transport facilities. Regardless of the fact that our buses can be slow at times, still, they serve us extremely well.
On the other hand, transport provided by Jahangirnagar University at Savar is free of charge. Ali Ahmed Mazumder, a lecturer at the public university, said: In total, we have 20 buses. Ten of those are our own and we have rented the rest from BRTC. We need to increase the number of buses, and that is why we have recently decided to buy seven more new buses. When I was a student of this university some 33 years back, the bus fare was Taka 1. Today, there is no fare at all. In order to use our transport service, students have to show their ID cards. We do not ask for bus fare from the students as we are afraid it might upset them, which could lead to some untoward incident. The distance from our campus to Dhaka is about 60 kilometres and our buses pick up students from all main corners of the capital.
Photos: File, Courtesy.
