This White Paper
seeks to widen the process of consultation on how the provision
of free and
supervised school transport for all students attending kindergarten and
compulsory schooling
is best achieved. The primary objectives of this paper are to:
• Review the current
systems in use by state, church and independent schools for the
organisation of
school transport;
• Identify different
options of how this objective can be achieved; and
• Put forward
proposals to address and mitigate identified challenges with a view to
limiting any adverse impacts of the proposed
changes.
Government proposes
to achieve the promised service in the following manner:
a)
Government
shall determine the service level conditions that need to be offered by
transport operators. All school transport operators will be considered
irrespective of their fleet size. However, those who are interested in
providing the requested services to any state or non-state school shall be
invited to agree to the set conditions.
b)
Through
a public market consultation, Government shall enter into a negotiated
procedure in accordance with the public procurement regulations with all
interested transport operators. By the end of this process a final list of
accredited transport operators will be issued.
c)
Government
shall review the possibility of changing opening and closing times of certain
state schools to facilitate the achievement of the set objective.
d)
A
call to all educators who are interested in providing transport supervision
services shall be issued.
e)
For
the time being organisation of transport logistics shall continue to be
administered in the manner it is at present. There are a number of different
models which are currently in use and it is believed that these should continue
to run autonomously.
f)
No
changes are being proposed in the way services are paid for. Government shall
pay the transport operator directly in the case of state schools and parents
pay for the service in the case of non-state schools.
g)
Government
will pay for the transport supervision services directly to teaching grades
within state schools and will reimburse the church secretariat and independent
schools for transport supervision performed by teaching grades employed with
church and independent schools respectively.
h)
Government
shall remove the existing tax credit system and introduce a full refund system
to all parents who make use of organised transport service with payment.
Refunds will be capped at the amounts agreed upon by the end of the negotiated
procedure mentioned in point (b) and will only be issued in respect of services
carried out by accredited transport operators.
i)
The
refund system will be based on an opt in system. Students need to be registered
in order to qualify for the refund. Use of the service will be monitored on a
daily basis and those who register and fail to use the Service will be
penalised.
j)
The
implementation of this policy might be spread over a number of stages to avoid
creating any unnecessary upheaval.
This White Paper
calls for further in-depth discussion, consultation and analysis of the above
mentioned proposals. Feedback is being sought on the above mentioned proposals.