Although the new school term to be started on Monday, there are transport issues may prevail due to fuel crisis, School children transporters says. They claim that in the face of the current diesel crisis, it has become an impossible to transport students properly.
Malsiri de Silva, of the All Ceylon School Transport Vans owner’s Association , says that despite vehicles fuelled after waiting queues for days, maintaining a regular transport service has become an increasing problem. He said fuel shortages as well as recovery of vehicle fees from parents have become a serious problem during this difficult time and the situation will get complicated in the future.
Gemunu Wijeratne, President of the Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association said that out of a total of 18,000 private buses islandwide, only 6,000 will continue to operate tomorrow and that the number of buses will be used for school transport as much as possible.
The Ministry of Education announced yesterday (04) that the second phase of the first term of schools will commence tomorrow (06) after the end of the leave given due to the GCE Ordinary Level Examination.
The first phase of the new school term, which began after the Sinhala New Year holidays, ended on the 19th of last month.