Classrooms sans teachers and students as attendance hit by transport difficulties

Schools started last week for the second academic term, but most classrooms were empty of students and teachers.

Students in rural areas were particularly hit with many parents being unable to afford the increased bus fares.

In upcountry areas only schoolchildren living close to schools had attended.

In some instances many teachers had applied for leave to stand in gas and kerosene queues.

"We have to feed our families. Today is the day they are issuing kerosene," a teacher from St. Leonards Maha Vidyalaya, Walapane said. She had been queuing up for three days to buy kerosene. That too was issued only for Rs. 300.

"After I buy from here I will have to purchase from another outlet," she said.

The economic crisis has taken a greater toll on children in the plantation sector, which has been greatly affected by the crisis. Parents say they are unable to provide three meals for their children. Many children trekked long winding roads in the tea country to get to school as their parents could ill afford the three wheeler charges. Many of them without breakfast.

Teachers have reported incidents of children fainting during assembly due to lack of food.

Meanwhile Private Bus owners Association say they are compelled to reduce their 18,000 fleet to about 6000 or even less due to fuel shortage.

Association president Gemunu Wijeratne said despite many requests to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) to grant them special permits to pump diesel, the pleas have been ignored.

He said an arrangement for private buses to pump fuel from the Ceylon Transport Board fuel sheds is not very successful as vehicles from many essential service departments also use this facility and sheds run out of fuel fast.

"We are running on a depleted fleet. Our association has around 20, 000 members but most have given up operating," he pointed out.

He said they were doing their utmost to provide a smooth service during school hours. But in many rural areas schoolchildren have to wait long hours for buses resulting in late attendance in school.

The All Island Schoolchildren Transport Association said that they had no choice but to increase their charges due to high fuel prices. Association president Malsiri de Silva said there was no fixed increase but individual van owners were allowed to negotiate with parents.

"We feel sorry for the parents but we have no choice," he said.

In Colombo some children were seen using alternative methods to travel to school with parents transporting them on motorbikes and push cycles.

The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU ) who say they had forewarned the government of the difficulties that children and teachers would face due to the prevailing crisis say the government is turning a blind eye to the plight.

The union said they had put forward several proposals to mitigate the situation. They included the introduction of a special school service to shuttle teachers and students to and from school.

Another was to reduce the number of school days in a week, but increase the number of academic hours in a day. The method would cover any backlog in covering the syllabuses.

The union has also suggested a special loan system to enable teachers to buy electric motorbikes and push cycles. Another proposal was that teachers serving in national schools and pre schools be transferred to schools situated close to their permanent residencies.

Union Secretary Joseph Stalin said the proposals had been made well before schools started for the second academic term, but the Education Ministry had done little to address them.