In November last year parents of school aged children living on the East Bank of Berbice (EBB) in Region 6 (East Berbice/ Courentyne) reported that they were reeling from hardships created by the abrupt removal of the David G school bus which had been assigned to the area.
They demanded the return of the school bus service.
They finally got back their school bus earlier this year for the run from Lighttown EBB to New Amsterdam and then a second run of a shorter distance from Edingburgh to New Amsterdam morning and afternoon.
But the reintroduced school bus is a thirty seater as opposed to the 50 seater David Granger school bus which had plied the route before being pulled.
On Thursday residents complained that the thirty seater bus is not enough to transport the growing school population on the East Bank of Berbice, even after two trips.
A parent told WeNEWS : “Many school children along the stretch between Edingburgh and New Amsterdam, which is the route for the second trip, are stranded on the road every day since school has reopened.”
A third trip by the current 30 seater bus, residents say, will not make sense since the second trip starts from 0800 hrs and school opens at 0830 hrs.
“A third trip can only drop off the remaining children at around 0900 hrs, a time too late for school,” one resident said.
“So these children are left stranded and parents have to stand the expense of getting them to and from school despite the existence of the current school bus.”
She emphasized that there is no secondary school along the EBB and that the closest such schools are in New Amsterdam so secondary school aged children have no other choice than to travel to New Amsterdam in order to get and complete their secondary education..
“Parents of these children have no choice and indeed after the David G School bus had been taken off the EBB route last year many parents were forced to keep their children at home because they could not afford the high transportation fares demanded by privately owned transport services.
“We are glad for the thirty seater bus assigned to the route by the Government. It is serving a very useful purpose, But as at this moment, we badly need another school bus on the East Bank of Berbice so as to ease the school going woes of children at the lower end of the school bus run in this area” she said.
