Students from different schools mixing on same school transport a concern to parents

Parents generally do not want their children mixing with children from different schools on school transport, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo told The Malta Independent yesterday.

Speaking with this newsroom following the launch of a white paper for consultation on free and supervised school transport, Bartolo explained that this concern, which surfaced through research commissioned by the government, is not only common between schools from different sectors, but also amongst schools of the same sector.

When asked about the reason behind this reluctance by parents, Bartolo said he believes it is a 'mixture of things'.

"It's a mixture of things. It's not only that parents who send their children to church schools and independent schools don't want (their children) to mix with those students who attend state schools – because that would be a very obvious social class issue, which I think is also there. But parents also do not want their children to mix with (students from) other schools from the same sector, including church schools and independent schools," he said.

He continued that parents believe that doing so would "create more problems, apart from the desirability to intermingle."

"I would personally think that it is something healthy," he said, agreeing that the scenario would be an 'ideal one', "however it is not the preferred option." He added that educators from schools from different sectors also expressed that it would be a preferred option.

With regards to mixing children of different ages together, varying between primary and secondary schools, Bartolo stated his belief that it would not be desirable to mix children of such varying ages, although it may be the situation if a destination-specific transport system is chosen. "You would have more bullying," said Bartolo, "that is why supervision is important, and that is why, within the study, parents gave importance to human supervision."

Three options became apparent through the research; 'Minimum intervention', 'Centralization of route planning but retaining school-specific transport services', and 'Shifting to a destination specific transport system'. The latter, which is the most financially and economically feasible for the government, will cost €14 million to implement and will reduce the number of routes significantly.

A destination-specific transport system is based on the design of routes which are destination specific, rather than school specific and would mean that students attending different schools will be using a common carrier. Bartolo expressed that many respondents to the surveys expressed least enthusiasm for this option, and the first preference of the majority was 'Minimum Intervention'. This option would retain the current transport systems across all schools and introduce a refund mechanism where the government would pay for the service being provided. This will cost the government an approximate €24 million.

Additional 14,000 students expected to start using supervised free school transport

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