KUALA LUMPUR: School bus operators in the country can breathe a sigh of relief as schools are expected to reopen in stages beginning March 1.
While initially only involving primary students, this is enough to give them hope to rise again after a prolonged dark period since the world was afflicted with the Covid-19 pandemic early last year.
Federation of School Bus Associations Malaysia president Amali Munif Rahmat said the sector has long suffered since the movement control order (MCO) was first implemented last year, forcing school sessions to be deferred.
“Almost 40% of school bus operators had to cease business. We used to have around 10,000 operators nationwide, but now I can safely say there are only about 6,000 left. The rest had to wind up operations, suffering losses as they were unable to maintain the buses and many have also turned to gig economy.
“We had to bear maintenance cost and debt from creditors even though the last payment we received from parents were in September last year. Overall, in 2020 we were only paid 6 months’ worth of fees which was in January, February, March, July, August and September,” he told Bernama.
Amali Munif said besides the decline in industry players, many guardians were also worried about the transmission of Covid-19 on school buses. Because of that, many still do not allow their children to use the school bus service.
“Parents who are allowed to work from home have also affected our service, since they have more time to send children to school and fetch them.
“This is worrying as our graph shows a consistent downward trend for passengers. Moreover, we have lost more than 500,000 passengers or 33 percent compared to pre-Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin recently announced that schools would reopen in stages starting with pre-schoolers and Standards One and Two on March 1 nationwide, to be followed by Standards Three, Four, Five and Six from March 8.
Secondary schools will commence sessions on April 4 for those in Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, and on March 5 for the other states. – Bernama
