Students schooling order exposes fault of transport department
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: September 24, 2022 -

THOUGH it seems belated, the directive issued by the Education (Schools) Department on Thursday to the school authorities and the law enforcement agencies to respectively restrict movement of school students in uniform beyond their institutional campus during school hours and driving vehicles without valid license is appreciable for it is intended to promote a conducive academic atmosphere and save precious lives.

Group of students wandering around aimlessly or flicking their smart phones have become quite a common sight nowadays.

As presence of students in uniform in parks and recreational facilities for romantic outings or bunking classes for reasons best known to them, is not a healthy sign, the office memorandum issued by Education (S) commissioner H Gyan Prakash stating that students in school uniforms are seen loitering during school hours in and around places other than their school campuses without proper guidance/school staff indicates that the government authorities are not unaware about such wasteful activities.

Accepted that students skipping classes is not a recent phenomenon but in this competitive age and taking into account of the fact that educational institutions have started conventional classroom teaching after loss of two normal academic sessions due to the Covid-19 outbreak, it is disheartening to see that substantial number of students aren't interested in attending classes.

The pandemic hangover might be one of the reasons for the students to undermine the importance and value of acquiring knowledge from their teachers in the schools and as such the school authorities need to shoulder the responsibility to ensure that a handful of truant students do not mislead their peers.

Having issued firm instruction that school authorities shall have to advise the teachers to register attendance of students for each period, the commissioner has sent a strong message that heads of institutions could be held accountable in case of non-compliance with the office memorandum. Another notable point mentioned by the commissioner is to prohibit school students from driving vehicles.

By pointing out that students studying till the higher secondary level should be below 18 years of age, the office memorandum has technically raised posers over efficiency and competency of the Transport Department as well as the law enforcement agencies to prevent under-age driving.

Even if the students were found possessing valid driving licence, which is quite possible, there is no reason why the license issuing authorities shouldn't be pulled up for misusing their position as law of the land allows possession of driving licence only after attaining 18 years of age.

Responsible officials of the transport department should exercise utmost precaution while issuing driving license as it is also an important identity document.

They should strictly scrutinise identities of applicants before issuing driving license for it may be used as a legal document by illegal migrants to even claim themselves as natives.

While the purpose of setting specific age limit for seekers of driving licence is out of safety concerns, any sort of irregularities in issuing driving license would be construed as the department defying law of the land.

In fact, the transport department already has the undesired record of issuing driving licences and processing other important documents without complying with standard procedures.