Soon, school buses in Vijayawada to have GPS trackers and safety alarms

Officials of School Education department are going to act tough, with the new rules related to the transport services of educational institutions across Vijayawada. In this regard, the officials of education department along with the Transport department structured few guidelines, which will be passed before the commencement of Sankranti vacation. As part of the guidelines, all the private school management's who are running school buses are going to instructed to install GPS trackers and safety alarms in all school buses across the state.

Across the State, over 61,000 schools are present of which around 40,000 are of government schools and rest 20,000 schools belong to the private sector. In fact, the Transport department of AP focussed on the safety of school transport, where all the school buses have to be enabled with GPS and autos or taxis that students would be used for travel have to be recorded with school management, which didn't get materialised.

Now, as the safety and security of the students travelling in school buses have become a major concern, the officials are planning to bring in strict guidelines and get them implemented. As part of this, firstly, the officials are focussing on school buses and then on college buses, to get equipped with GPS and safety alarm.

Speaking to TNIE, Adityanath Das, Principal Secretary of School Education Department said, "We wanted to bring reforms that are related to the safety and security of the students. Thus, we are initiating on instructing schools to get their transport services enabled with GPS tracking and safety alarms so that the safety and security of the student during transport to the institution can be assured."According to the parents, educationalists and people for various student organisations allege that school managements in the State are not taking certain measures which have to be taking place for security and safety purposes.

"It is a good move in case if the school buses get GPS tracking facilities. Sometimes we feel worried after learning about school bus accidents and other mishaps. Now they can be controlled to an extent with the new features. Even we can track the bus and know the whereabouts of it." said B Sushma, a parent.