As a parent, it’s your job to ensure kids get to school alive

The issue of safe transport for schoolgoing children is once again churning in my mind.

Do parents ever take the time to thoroughly investigate the drivers, transport and routes that their children use?

Are parents even aware that their children are crammed into Nissan 1400s like sardines?

If not, why do they not know?

If they do, what are they doing about it?

Surely, parents cannot be so desperate that they are willing to toy with the health and safety of their children.

Also, when an accident occurs, can these very parents feign shock and horror? Can they blame the driver? Who do they hold accountable?

We hear of children having to travel from Protea Glen in Soweto to Sandton. We also hear of parents up in arms that headmasters refused their children entry into schools because they are not from the feeder area.

But we never hear of parents making the effort, a year in advance, to find their children safe and reliable transport to get to those very schools.

Basically, if you want your child in a school far from home that requires someone else to get them there, put in the same effort to make sure that they will be transported safely.

When newspaper headlines and news reports are filled with school transport accident reports because the driver packed 25 seven-year-old kids into a nine seater, the parents want to question the metro police for not policing these drivers.

They also blame government for not providing free transport.

But when does the blame game end and accountability take centre stage?

The driver the parents want to blame stops at their gate and hoots for their child to come out, The parents never check that their child is riding in the transport they signed up for.

Second, if parents want to blame the policing units for not stopping the rot, surely those units should police parents too?

It is a basic parental duty that mothers and fathers should take responsibility for all aspects of their children’s lives.