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Why differentiating child from pupil in setting fare necessary
2007-11-23 18:45:48
By Our Correspondent
Recently a workshop taking place in Dar es Salaam made some revelations, which if taken seriously by the powers that be might have serious implications on primary and secondary school goers and children in general.
During the discussion, a consultant with the National Institute of Transport (NIT), Augustine Mwaya suggested that the students should be charged half the fare by commuter buses for the same distance they travel.
Mwaya who, was giving his views on a study on students` transport problems in Dar es Salaam and other cities in the country, said the Transport Licensing Act Number 1 (Cap 317, the Transport Licensing (Road Service Vehicles) (Prescribed Conditions) Regulations of 1973 2(c) recognize students as children between the ages of 3 to 16.
Mwaya, however is surprised that no bus operator has ever been ready to enforce the law.
According to him, the regulations stipulate that students’ fare is 50 per cent of the adult’s, but unfortunately approved rates of students from time to time have just been a fraction less than 50 per cent of the full fare.
The consultant therefore concludes that lack of enforcement of the Act has been the root cause of the students’ transport problems, accusing the law enforcement institutions of hesitating to enforce the student fare at 50 per cent.
`According to the study, most institutions consulted consider the fare rate of 50 per cent as having socio-political implications than economical,` he observed.
He proceeds to say that the operators are reluctant to allow students into their buses for fear of benefiting less from the little fares.
Anybody who has read or head of the study must clearly tell that it is lopsided in one way or the other and has failed to establish the realities of the transport problems in Tanzania.
Currently, most students, even those who arrange for special transport to school pay full fare for all the upcountry buses.
These buses must start their journey from any of the local cities or towns.
There is no complaint in this and consultant Mwaya does not see the need for the law enforcers to play their role on this.
It is only when such students have paid full fare that they can be allowed to occupy seats.
In others words transporters have built a habit where they want every passengers, whether it is a child or not, be charged fare of an adult, but without necessarily be treated like an adult.
Why is it that Mwaya is trying to forcefully push forward the agenda of daladala owners, without knowing the logic why children are forced to pay more than students?
The truth is that the powers that be decided that students and pupils should pay 50/- instead of half fare because unlike other children or youth, they travel daily to and from school.
By subjecting them to pay half fare, it means that the parents will have to bear the burden of bus fare—and equivalent of half the adult fare in a month.
Imagine if one has four schooling children, it means that one will have to pay the full fares of two other persons for the four children in a month.
So those who decided that primary and secondary school goers should pay only 50/- instead of half fare, were not wrong—perhaps they have been much more considerate than any other person but taking into account the sociological and even economic aspects.
For my consultant friends who think that the legalistic aspect is the only approach when it comes to resolving such matters, perhaps it is necessary that they be alerted that mere enforcement of the law without the social economic support would be as good as useless.
As Abraham Lincoln, the 16th US president once remarked, the best way to make a good law ineffective is to put it into practice.
While a number of students fail to go to school because they do not have enough fare, the point is not to push up the fares any more, but to consider what can be done under the obtaining circumstances.
In a surmise one could say that Mwaya appears to be a consultant for bus owners and not for the people.
Apparently there are upcountry buses, which charge full fare for both adult and child passengers.
In such a situation, one would expect that good consultants like Mwaya would insist that the law should take its course to ensure that students are not exploited by the get-rich-quick bus owners.
Such a problems however is not seen to have been overlooked in the study.
When shall the law take its course to ensure that such students pay half fare and not full as it is currently the case?
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