Students Could Lose Their Ride as School Bus Payments Stall
Just weeks into the new school year, the daily trip to the classroom has become uncertain for many students across southern and western Belize. Several school bus operators say the Ministry of Education has not paid them for three weeks, leaving them without enough money to keep their buses running. They are now threatening to suspend service until the ministry settles its outstanding payments. Dalmon Ritchie, owner of Ritchie’s Bus Company, says his four buses transport as many as fifty students each day. But keeping those buses on the road has forced him to take more than three thousand dollars in diesel on credit, a cost he says his business can no longer carry.
On the Phone: Dalmon Ritchie, Owner, Ritchie’s Bus Company
“Well we come to this long time. I discuss it with all of our members and we done talk and discuss how can we do it. The only way is, we cant go anymore. We buck. I mih the credit and done deh pass three hundred dollar in debt. So I said I will have to stop. I can’t go to the gas station. I don’t want to go back because it is already high. Students and parents are worrying about how their kids cant get to school. So when me and my chairman decided that if the parents can come up, because they are still paying on a next boat to take them across or use the bus to go around, so me and my chairman said bway, if we let the kids pay on the bus then we could just buy the fuel. We could pay the driver out of pocket and parents could just pay for the kids to go until the government fix up the issue.”
Paul Lopez
“You have any understanding of how long before the government pay you all?”
On the Phone: Dalmon Ritchie
“They say mid week, but that is just a promise.”
The Ministry of Education says delays in finalizing contracts have held up payments, but officials are now working with the Ministry of Finance to clear the outstanding amounts by midweek. Schools and principals along the affected routes have already been alerted and asked to support students who may struggle to attend classes. The ministry has apologized for the potential disruption and says it is working to keep school transportation safe, reliable and running consistently.
Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.
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