Fourteen school children and a teacher perished after their van caught fire last week in the peri-urban area of Gujrat while on the way to school. News reports inform us that a fire in the electric wires in the van, presence of petrol in a bottle inside the vehicle and inappropriate change over from Compressed Natural Gas to petrol by the driver could have been the causes of the tragedy.

The trauma of the bereaved families notwithstanding, the episode demands a thorough probe from every related angle while engaging all the concerned stakeholders to fix the responsibility and extending punishment to all found guilty of this criminal misconduct. There are many important issues that emanate from this tragedy and are valid for other cities in Pakistan also.

There is a mismatch between the rising urban population and available options of quality education in various cities across the country. In most parts of the country, the government or municipality-run schools are suffering from acute problems of management crises of one sort or the other. It compels the parents to opt for private schools which have organically sprung up in every nook and corner of our cities. Since these schools have to function on a self-finance basis without any direct or indirect support from the state, they become deficient on many counts.

Operation from under-spaced residential or non-purpose built accommodation is the foremost problem. Many houses in the low, middle and upper income neighbourhoods in Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Peshawar, Quetta and other large and small cities have been transformed through the self-initiatives of school entrepreneurs. The key driving criteria is the possibility to attract enough school children that could keep the school financially viable. The managements of such schools spend less and wish to earn more.

Many safety procedures are conveniently compromised. The location of the underground tank and its opening lid is often found accessible to children who out of common mischief can open it and run into the hazard of drowning. Installation of the electricity distribution board, motors for pumping and sucking water and other power installations are normally exposed without safety barriers. Schools in semi-urban areas are also run in very shabby accommodation — incidences of walls or roofs caving in are tragic frequent mentions in interior Sindh, rural Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Outside the schools, in busy locations, the menace of rowdy traffic poses an alarming threat to school children. Even in the schools located on Sharea Faisal in Karachi — rated by some as a VIP corridor — the problem of pedestrian movement and crossing is intense especially during the morning and afternoon.

School transport is a sad reminder of the neglect the governments have extended towards the education sector. It is disappointing to note that scores of donor-funded programmes have been executed in different regions that focused on different dimensions of education, but none paid any heed to issues pertinent to the commuting of students.

It is a common observation that parents make the rational choice of enrolling their offspring in a quality school which is within their means. Often such schools are located far away from their residences. The normal methods of transport are a school van, shared taxi, auto rickshaw or other forms of para transit. In the absence of state intervention, the informal private sector has taken over this service almost on a nationwide basis. The informal operators extend this service at a price affordable to their clientele — the quality and safety is conveniently compromised.

There are several ways to deal with this situation. The objective reality is that in the absence of purpose-built and conveniently-located school campuses, the dependence on school transport remains intact. The informal sector shall provide this service, given the undesirable cost of more expensive formal transport options or state subsidies — which are impossible to consider given the grave financial situation of the country. The government agencies such as regional transport authorities, provincial government departments and nationalised commercial banks will have to take lead.

Assistance to informal operators can be undertaken through multiple formats. A seven-step strategy is hereby proposed for the consideration and review of all the stakeholders. The core approach in this proposal is inclusive in nature. It builds on the fact that the existing coterie of service providers — school transport operators — are willing to be assisted and reformed, provided the profitability of their enterprises is kept intact. Issues of financing replacement or upgradation of the bus or van fleets, training and capacity building of drivers and other staff interface with the government to eventually become registered formal enterprises and the access to expanded opportunities of operation are some incentives that can help materialise this or any similar strategy.

As Gujrat has been the immediate victim of this avoidable inferno, the incoming Punjab Government will do well to consider reforming the school transport sub-sector. It can become an  example worth emulating by other provincial governments.

The writer is professor and chairman, Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University, Karachi.