Driving school in each district

FE Team | Published: January 15, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

A large number of people in this country are poor. The democratically-elected government has a special responsibility to improve their economic conditions. Different measures can be taken to raise their level of income. For example, driving schools could be set up in every district town and city and those schools should be run properly. Bangladesh has 64 district towns where 64 driving schools can be established. Such schools can turn out many trained drivers from different regions of the country every year. Properly trained skilled drivers will ensure safer transport movement and help reduce the number of fatal accidents now taking place on the country's roads and highways everyday. A large number of skilled and trained drivers among them will also get the opportunity of going abroad with jobs and earn valuable foreign exchange for our economy. They will then be able to raise the standards of living of their families. Huge amount of money will not be required to set up and operate driving schools. A driving school can be provided with two mini-buses, two trucks and two double-cabin pick-up vans initially. The trainees will eventually become part of our skilled or semi-skilled manpower. Such manpower is an asset for the country. A joint venture involving traffic police, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Technical Education Board and Bureau of Manpower, can be useful to set up and run, at least, one driving school in each district town in Bangladesh. The curriculum of driving should cover driving of a vehicle, traffic rules and regulations, preliminary knowledge on automobile technologies, personal, family and social consequences of accidents etc. It is our estimate that an amount of Tk 2 billion may be required to establish and operate 64 driving schools equipped with proper facilities and vehicles. The amount is not too big considering the cost of a large number of annual fatal accidents in the country. Besides, the amount of investment by the government for establishing and operating such driving schools can be fully recovered within a very short span of time through remittances sent home by a good number of trained drivers getting employment opportunities in foreign countries. Md. Ashraf Hossain Ramna, Dhaka mah120cb@yahoo.com