World Vision Children's Advisory Council requests free school transport for pupils in rural areas

The World Vision Romania Children's Advisory Council addressed an open letter to Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, requesting free and safe school transport for pupils in rural areas. World Vision Romania supports the initiative and considers that the transport of pupils in rural areas "should be a priority" for the Government, as it would contribute to both reducing early school leaving and increasing the level of child safety. "We, the World Vision Romania Foundation, an organization that works daily with children from Romanian villages, have watched with sadness and indignation the tragedies publicized lately. Unfortunately, everything that has happened shows us that the voice of children and young people in Romania is not listened to. As an organization that puts the rights and interests of children at its center, we encouraged in 2012 the establishment of the World Vision Romania Children's Advisory Council, a group of 12 children and young people, elected for a two-year term, to be the voice of the roughly 20,000 children from the counties where we operate: Cluj, Dolj, Ialomita, Vaslui and Valcea. Today, we let them express their thoughts, concerns, needs and, above all, their hopes, because they believe that change is possible in Romania and come with a first solution and concrete request: free and safe school transport for pupils in rural areas," a press release sent to AGERPRES on Tuesday informs. The quoted source mentions the data of the European Monitor for Education and Training 2018, according to which the school transport services in Romania "are generally insufficient and inadequate, and the accessibility gets worse as pupils advance within the school system." At the same time, according to the Rural Child Wellbeing Report 2018, carried out by the World Vision Romania Foundation, only 32 percent of the children in pre-primary, primary or secondary school use the school transport, and the remaining 67 percent walk to school.AGERPRES(RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)