Omnibus drivers satisfied with students’ behaviour |19 May 2020

The new school term for primary and secondary students in state schools began yesterday after almost two months in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Days before school resumed many were concerned about transportation due to the fact that SPTC is enforcing social distancing in all its buses which means that only a few will be able to board the bus at any one time while the rest will have to wait for another bus.

To offer some relief to this situation, the Seychelles Omnibus Association has allocated 91 buses from various private businesses to help pick up post-secondary students in the morning and afternoon.

Mervin Elizabeth, chairman of the association, noted that they have experienced some challenges with the short time allocated to the drivers to get the schedule for the nine post-secondary schools but apart from that the association is getting very good cooperation from the land transport department and the post-secondary schools.

The chairman also remarked that since they have started doing this they have had no problems with the students as they are respecting all the necessary guidelines including social distancing.

As for SPTC, Seychelles NATION reached out to the company but it could not comment on how they handled the pick-up of students. However we did notice that many secondary students were still stranded at the bus stop yesterday morning in large groups along with other people who were going to work.

Christophe Zialor