Kindergarten can't get vehicle on road
Updated: 2012-01-11 07:57
By Liu Ce (China Daily)
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SHENYANG - A kindergarten in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, is frustrated because the newly bought school bus can't get a license plate.
The kindergarten bought the bus, made by Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co, for 240,000 yuan ($38,000) in November. In the past two months, Zhang Xiujuan, deputy head of Shenyang Shangye Kindergarten, tried repeatedly to apply for a license plate without success.
"Without a license, we can only keep the bus parked here."
She said the kindergarten has 380 children and about 30 of them live far away. So the school decided to buy the bus.
"I was happy to hear my daughter could take the school bus. It's safer than my mother taking her to school by bus," said Hu Mingbo. His 4-year-old daughter was enrolled in the kindergarten for nearly a year.
"I can't understand why a qualified school bus can't get a license but the illegal ones can."
According to Liaoshen Evening News, the local transportation authority also felt disappointed that there was no regulation in the city to approve a school bus license plate.
Gong Bin, an official with Shenyang transportation bureau, spoke of various transportation regulations in the city, the province and the country, but said that none specifically addresses urban school buses.
A China Daily reporter requested information from the bureau on Monday but received no reply by press time on Tuesday.
There are regulations in place for the licensing procedure of rural-area school buses in Shenyang.
Lin Chongfu, marketing manager of Dandong Huanghai, a school bus maker, confirmed that. "All of our buses are sold to rural areas. And there are no such problems," Lin said.
Zhang said: "(The transportation bureau) told me to contact the education bureau to have the bus certified. But the staff of education bureau told me that there is no department that can certify it."
Shenyang is not the only city with this problem. The first school bus in Nanjing, East China, also was in the awkward position that no department was authorized to certify it.
"School buses are new in the cities in our country. Children used to go to kindergartens near their home. However, with growing urbanization, the number of kindergartens cannot meet the need. Many children have to go hours away from home. The government should address these changes as soon as possible and make new regulations," said Liang Qidong, a researcher at the Liaoning social sciences academy.
"Maybe we have to wait for the local government to publish a regulation. But no one can tell us how long that will take," said Zhang.
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