Dili students have called on the Ministry of Education to provide a school bus so they will no longer be late to school.
Nobel da Paz Secondary School student Avelino da Costa said it was difficult to reach school as mikrolet drivers did not want to pick them up.
“Sometimes we force ourselves in the cars, even if we are just hanging on but then the police make us get down in the street which makes us late to school,” he said.
He said the Ministry of Education should provide public transport to students.
“We are sad because we are always late to school,” he said.
“When we arrive, the first lesson is sometimes finished.”
Commission F (for education, health, culture, veterans’ and gender equality affairs) member, Member of Parliament Ilda Maria da Conceicao said regardless of circumstance, students needed to make the effort to be at school on time.
She said she supported the actions on Transport Police (POLTRANS) in telling students not to hang off the side of vehicles as such actions put their lives at risk
MP da Conceicao said students often slept in after staying up late to watch football matches. Those students then endangered themselves by hanging off the side of vehicles.
“Whose fault is it when they fall?” she said.
“We should have the police control this.”
She told the students to stop hanging off the sides of mikrolets and to remember the sacrifices made by their parents to send them there.
PNTL operations commander Superintendent Armando Monteiro said laws were enacted in 2006 prohibiting people from hanging off mikrolets.
“We have raised awareness of those laws and the students should not pretend they do not know about them,” he said.
Superintendent Monteiro said hanging off the side of mikrolets was extremely dangerous.
