The Karnataka High Court’s suggestion in September to revise school timings as a measure to decongest traffic in Bengaluru has put school management authorities, parents and other stakeholders in worry.
Following the High Court’s suggestion, the department of school education and literacy had called a meeting Thursday to take suggestions from the stakeholders on revising school timings. However, the meeting has been rescheduled to October 9, Monday.
Meanwhile, private school management authorities believe that school hours are not the reason for the traffic congestion in Bengaluru. They argue that the suggestion to revise the school timings and the direction to start early, will only put children under more stress.
Most of the schools in Bengaluru have a reporting time of anywhere between 8 am and 8.30 am and classes begin somewhere around 9 am. The school authorities argued that the government and traffic personnel should keep the timings intact and instead, capitalise on effective traffic management and deploy adequate BMTC buses for students.
Associated Managements of Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) president D Shashikumar said pinning the blame on school timings for traffic congestion is “baseless”.
“The school affairs in connection with transport is only a matter of 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon. Apart from that, it is the other private vehicles that are a major cause for traffic congestion in Bengaluru, especially in places like Hebbal and the central business district. Revising school timings will only put children under more stress. Not only children, the stress will also transfer to parents, the teaching and non-teaching staff and security personnel who will be forced to start their day at 4 am, which is practically impossible,” said Shashikumar.
Shashikumar also suggested that the government implement “school bus pooling” using electric buses where students going to schools in the same vicinity or area can travel in one bus, which will avoid many private cars on the road. He also suggested that parents submit an undertaking to the school management on sending their children only in public transports and not in their private vehicles.
V Swetha, a parent, said, “The reporting time in the schools is already early enough for the kids. Bringing it forward will only lead to stress for the children and the parents. Picking up and dropping off students is just a few minutes’ job. This won’t lead to traffic jams. It is a moving traffic which can be cleared by the traffic personnel in some time. Revising the school timings will only have a negative impact on the lives of the students and the parents.”
The Bengaluru traffic police department believes that although congestion occurs during school hours, especially during examination days, the long term solution, however, would be for the school management to invest in enough parking space to accommodate private vehicles and school buses.
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In fact, police officials have time and again warned several private schools, especially in the CBD area, to not park school buses and tempos on the road, which occupy a part of the main road, leading to traffic jams.
Joint Commissioner of traffic, Bengaluru, M N Anucheth said, “Ideally the long term solution would be for the school management to invest in adequate parking space like a basement parking to accommodate private vehicles and school buses. The school can map the pickup and drop off zones accordingly which will avoid private vehicles from queuing up on the roads. With adequate parking space, the school buses and tempos can also park their vehicles after dropping them to school. This parking facility would also be a great advantage on examination days, when more students attend schools.”
As a part of the ‘Safe Route to School’ initiative, the traffic department also directed parents to drop off their children inside the school and leave, without having to stop their private vehicles at the school gate, which again leads to traffic congestion.
