Matthew Xuereb
Fees probe still not concluded
Schools refurbished
As thousands of students return to school today, the Office of Fair Competition has still to conclude an investigation it launched last year into school transport fees.
Over the past few years, parents have had to fork out more and more for school transport, which is still unregulated.
The investigation was launched at the end of September last year.
A spokesman for the Office of Fair Competition said the investigation was still ongoing because the OFC was waiting for the new prices to be issued so that it could compare them to last year's prices. This exercise would allow the OFC to establish a trend in pricing structures, the spokesman said.
Industry sources said minibus owners were aware of the difficulties parents were facing to meet the rising cost of their children's education, especially school transport fees. In view of this, they were not planning to raise their prices but the problem was that many more parents were opting to take children to school themselves. Car-pooling was also on the rise. This meant less business for minibuses.
Parents have been told that the price of school transport would only be fixed some time into the new scholastic year because the operators wanted to see how many people would be using their services. They have seen a sharp decline in bookings but are hoping parents would change their mind at the last minute.
Last year, when school transport fees had gone up considerably, transport operators argued that prices had to rise because of higher diesel costs and a requirement that all schoolchildren had to buckle up on their way to or from school. This meant that younger children could not share seats.
Some van owners said they had to fit seat belts because their vans did not have any installed on the back seats.
Summer holidays have ended for 34,437 students who return to school today when the new school in Pembroke will also open its doors to its first students. Costing over €8 million, the school is the only one that will be able to generate its own energy.
Education Minister Dolores Cristina said in a radio interview that over the summer months, the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools refurbished 60 schools.
On the consultation document of the transition from primary to secondary without too much stress on the students, Mrs Cristina said the bulk of the reform would come into force in 2011.
She said the toughest challenge in the education system reform was reaching the target that, by 2015, 85 per cent of students would pursue post-secondary studies.
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joe scerri
Sep 29th 2009, 08:57
Perhaps it will be concluded when my children become great grandparents.
Vince DeBono
Sep 28th 2009, 20:52
@John Fenech. Good list of expenses to be taken into account- depreciation is always to be included in any investment - and you said the profit percentage to the owner is OPTIONAL!!!! Really? To all. Seatbelts cannot be optional. Older minibuses are being replaced. These expenses are the investment that needs to be paid by clients of the minibus service. Many years ago, for reasons of penny-pinching, safety was ignored. The authorities then allowed vehicles to carry 3 children as equivalent to 2 adults (eg 14 seater minibuses carry 21 children or 45 seater route buses could carry 67 children). So now, 2 children will at least cost as much as 3 used to. Or in other words, before fuel, wages and ADT license and insurance fees are factored in, you will pay in 2 terms what you paid during the entire scholastic year. Oh, and the contractor has the right to earn money...let me put it this way, if I had a minibus and I sent it out just to recover expenses, just to risk some student making a mess of the interior, just to risk it getting damaged, I would be happier leaving it pristine in the garage!
Joe V Scerri
Sep 28th 2009, 17:48
Who said that it is compulsory for school vans to have seat belt installed? Apparently somebody had decided that older vans were not obliged to install them. As if the children using such vans have some lesser rights. Actually my common sense would say that the older the vehicle is, the bigger the risks!
Secondly, the uniforms saga is not far from being defined as a racket. On many occasions you will find that somebody has a guaranteed and exclusive business, at the detriment of quality and price. And to make it worse you get schools (especially Church Schools) compounding the issue further with some particular requirements eg colours of shoes. If the shoes is required to be of any specific colour other than black, you're into trouble. I've heard that a certain school asks for a blue shoes! Now, why on earth should the colours of shoes make a difference? Same problem with PE shoes. Some expect unbranded white shoes with complete disregard to quality of the shoes. Schools should realise that the more exclusive their uniform is, the more prone it becomes for the feisty merchants. When are we going to get some action?
m.grech
Sep 28th 2009, 16:27
with reference to the school uniform inquiry, just for the record one item of clothing has gone up by at least 3.50 euros from last year and having two children at secondary level book prices too were very steep. But unfortunately we parents are never given any way out our children need the stuff and we have to provide no matter what the cost is. Transport fees were too expensive we had to start taking them ourselves.
Joe Tabone-Adami
Sep 28th 2009, 16:13
@ Office of Fair Competition: "Slowly slowly catchee monkey". The end of the world is not nigh, yet!
john Fenech
Sep 28th 2009, 14:04
The parents do not give a hoot what were the fees last year or the year before, what they need to know as of yesterday is are they being ripped off?
The authorities had 12 calendar months to establish the minibuses cost per trip from A to B than all they had to do was to call the minibuses Association and discuss a reasonable fee per trip. Therefore, from the OFC reply one concludes that such an exercises is still somewhere in the dark regions of outer space. Thus, the inevitable excuses why it took the authorities 12 Calendar months to achieve zilg!
This exercise need to classify the minibuses in categorise of manufacture and age. Draw up the applicable maintenance schedules for each category including spares. The fuel consumption per kilometre. The fuel cost .The insurance and licence cost. Depreciation if applicable. The trip journeys length. The driver wages, and where applicable a profit percentage to the owner.
Than the OFC could compare cabbage to cabbage, and not cabbage to fertiliser. Mind you history is repeating itself, remember the safety belt saga?
So who should intervene to nudge the OFC to do its job and the schools to cooperate?
Carlo Mifsud
Sep 28th 2009, 13:24
And what about the investigation into the school uniforms saga? And books and supplies/stationery to kids! We all watch UK channels and one can see that uniforms - a whole set - costs just £15 and 5 items of stationery are sold for less than a fiver.....this is because there is competition and the few are not protected. There also needs to be rules on continous changes to school uniforms... both school transport and uniforms must be regulated.....a proper regulator
Malcolm Mifsud
Sep 28th 2009, 13:20
Just for the record. The increase I mentioned previously was imposed by the school and not by drivers. There is a small number of drivers who can transport children to this school without having anything to do with the school transport system. As of this year I am using an independent driver, but I couldn't the last scholastic term because when we were notified every van was booked, so I either had to accept the school's transport system or take them to school myself, whether I like it or not, whether I afforded it or not. So much for preaching charity!
I. Gatt
Sep 28th 2009, 11:49
What about school fees? Should these not be regulated too?
The hike from primary to secondary school private tuition is incredible and for many untenable.....
Robert Aquilina
Sep 28th 2009, 11:29
I am sure that no one blames the parents for choosing not to send their children with school transport. As well said by Mr. Mifsud school transport companies last year where asking deposit for the following year without telling the parents what the final fee is going to be.
Common sence say's that one should know how much an Item costs before comminting himself to buy, so how can someone ask for a deposit without telling you how mush the final price is going to be.
I would be the first one to send my daughter with the school transport only if and when they would be decent enough to let once child under their responsability.
Malcolm Mifsud
Sep 28th 2009, 10:25
And it never will. Last term my two daughters attended a girls' church school in Gzira. The fee for school transport was doubled from €93.17 (Lm40) per term to €168 (Lm72.12), per child, an increase of more than 80%. The previous May we were asked by the school to pay a deposit for the following year's transport and we were never told what the new rates will be. To add insult to injury vans carrying children independently from the school were not allowed to enter the school grounds so that the students could alight, not even in inclement weather! The church authorities have also been notified about this but nothing has been done to date.