Protestat Axed School Bus Service

By Kathryn Torney

Children, parents, and teachers were today due to converge on the Southern Education Board offices to protest at the axing of the afternoon school bus service.It will be the third time in four months that such a protest has taken place at the monthly board meeting. Protesters are demanding the reinstatement of an early afternoon bus service for children in primaries one to three.A statement issued by the Parents Against Cuts in Education group said that the SELB area covered the district councils of Cookstown, Dungannon and South Tyrone, Armagh, Craigavon, Banbridge, and Newry and Mourne. “It is one of, if not the, most rural of all the education boards,” the group said.”The loss of this service is proving to be a great hardship on families and schools alike. “The board told parents that it would fulfil its obligation by transporting children home at the end of the school day, over an hour later than when the school dismisses them. “At the protest all the children will be carrying yellow balloons. This is to remind the board members that this issue affects the entire community. It is not a green issue or orange issue, it is a yellow bus issue.”At its last meeting in September the board narrowly defeated a motion calling for the reinstatement of the bus service. Sinn Fein education spokesman Michael Ferguson said: “We are calling upon political representatives, unionist, nationalist and republican to unite in the interests of rural communities for whom school transport is deemed a cornerstone of educational provision.”It is crucial that we reinstate the school bus service and in addition tell the Education Minister we demand a real budget to support education and learning and the best way to do this is through our own Assembly with locally accountable ministers.”