There are still students in special education who spend more than one and a half hours on the bus to or from school. Catholic Education denounced this in a press release on Sunday. Our own survey of 135 schools from our own network showed that six in ten special education schools still have daily worries about student transport a month after the start of the school year.
Flemish Minister of Mobility Lydia Peeters (Open VLD) reiterated the target at the end of August that student transport journeys in special education should last a maximum of 90 minutes. But according to Catholic education, the target is not being achieved.
“Every school year we have to conclude that transport for our most vulnerable students for families and schools does not run as it should,” said Lieven Boeve, director general of Catholic Education Flanders. “We will continue to sound the alarm until this is structurally completely resolved, and the comfort of the children finally becomes central.”
Numbers do not reflect reality
De Guimardstraat refers to scripts from De Lijn, which allegedly show that almost one in ten students spends more than 90 minutes on the school bus. But according to Catholic Education, the figures do not reflect reality. Last month, “quite a few buses” arrived regularly after the start of the school day. Hundreds of students miss the start of classes every day, it is said. There are “probably more than a thousand” every week.
The education umbrella organization also states that students have to get up very early. One in four schools indicate that the first student gets on the bus before 6:30 am. In almost nine out of ten cases, the first student gets on the bus before 7 am.
Digital portal problems
Many schools cite organizational problems, including problems with a new digital portal for student transport. One in five schools cites teething problems with that platform and states that it entails an administrative burden. For example, schools experience that different buses for the same school have to drop off children on the same street, that buses are too small for the number of students they have to transport, and so on.
Also, not all buses are “student-worthy”. The most common complaint is a broken air conditioning or heating system. “At the beginning of September, buses reached 40 degrees,” the press release said.
Catholic Education Flanders received feedback from 135 of 204 schools surveyed. The figures relate to 15,926 students.
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2023-10-01 06:33:18
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