Parents of children who attend Church and private schools are sceptical about the effectiveness of the €150 tax credit that has been granted in the Budget to encourage more of them to make use of school transport.

The chairman of the board at San Andrea School, Edgar Caruana Montaldo, said it might push them to start using the school van but it would not be a major factor.

For more parents to turn to school transport, it has to be free

“I think that some parents find it easier to take their children to school themselves because it is on their way to work,” he said.

Also, a large number of parents car pooled. “At San Andrea you will see many parents with more than one child in the car.”

Mr Caruana Montaldo, who uses school transport for his own children, admitted, that it was quite an expense. “It might make a difference when you have more than one child who goes to school.”

However, there were several other issues that affected school transport, he pointed out, including the number of available vans and the safety factor.

“We are very careful about the type of driving that takes place, the behaviour of drivers and language they use while transporting children,” he said, adding there were instances when drivers had been changed for those reasons.

San Andrea School makes sure there is an adult supervisor on every van.

Furthermore, drivers who bring the children late because they tried to fit in more than one trip were not accepted.

The school has seen a drop in the number of vans available for the school run as so many are currently in use on the public transport system.

“For more parents to turn to school transport, it has to be free,” Mr Caruana Montaldo believes.

Similarly, the chairman of the Association of Parents of Children in Church Schools, Joseph Mercieca, said the refund would not make a tangible difference.

“There are more important issues that need to be discussed and tackled when it comes to school transport,” he said.

Children, for example, were being picked up at 6am when they started school at 7.30pm, which meant they were left waiting outside for the gates to be opened.

Also, they were being taken home at around 4.30pm when they finished two hours earlier.

Drivers were also driving “like mad” to keep up with the work and extra trips they were making.

“We want these things to be sorted with the authorities.”

Parents, said Mr Mercieca, were paying around €550 a year per child “but they still end up using their car”.