Dubai, March 31: Every school bus carrying girl students as well as buses carrying mixed students up to primary level will require to have at least one female conductor, the RTA announced.
Every school bus carrying girl students as well as buses carrying mixed students up to primary level will require to have at least one female conductor, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced on Thursday.
The announcement came as part of the joint initiative by the RTA, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority and the Community Development Authority to ensure greater security of children in the backdrop of the recent alleged sexual assault on a student in a school bus.
“We already have a very good mechanism in place to ensure maximum security and safety of school kids, but with this measure we are looking to tighten it further and leave no room for any untoward incidents,” said a senior official at the Public Transport Agency at the RTA.
According to the new regulations, schools are obliged to post at least one conductor on each school bus and a woman conductor on any bus carrying pupils from the kindergartens up to the sixth primary class. The same applies to buses designated to carry female students or mixed male and female students up to the Secondary stage. The official said that the decision was taken after contemplating the current scenario in schools across the emirate. He also said that a team of experts from the three authorities also reviewed the best practices in the school bus conductors’ profession in the United States, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong and other developed countries.
The authorities have also set certain qualification prerequisites for the appointment of conductors on school buses. All the candidates should go through a training course designed specifically by RTA for the school bus conductors and get an approval from RTA before starting their job.
The conductors should not be below the age of 25 and should have a minimum education of secondary level, with a priority for graduates from educational disciplines.
The training courses to be conducted by RTA for the conductors will focus on conversational skills, First Aid handling skills, transport law etc.
“We already have training courses for bus drivers as well as conductors… what we are doing now is making it more comprehensive. Our current safety stipulations stand with some of the best in the world but we want to improve further,” Mohammed Abu Baker Al Hashimi, Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development at RTA’s Public Transport Agency.
RTA currently have in place safety stipulations that require school buses to remain under the speed limit of 80kph, have a shaft with stop sign boards, GPS systems as well as First Aid kits.
The authority has trained more than 5,000 school bus drivers over the last two years and issue dozens of fines every month through surprise inspections on school buses.
To make sure the stipulations are adhered to, the RTA along with the other to authorities will form a special team.
–Agencies–