The principal of a Jeddah school has been dismissed for “dereliction of duty” that led to the death of eight-year-old student Nawaf Al-Sulami in the school bus recently.
“The school failed to abide by the regulation that makes it mandatory for schools to choose the bus drivers, train them and follow up on their work,” Abdul Majid Al-Ghamdi, spokesperson of the Jeddah education department, said.
The committee, which was formed by the education department to investigate the case, said the Al-Aqsa Al-Ahliyya school in Naseem district and the bus driver are responsible for the student’s death on April 3.
Neither the school staff nor the bus driver checked if Nawaf had got down or not from the bus after it arrived at the school in the morning. The child was found dead in the afternoon the same day.
Al-Ghamdi said it is the responsibility of school managements to place a field plan take a written report by the drivers for ensuring that all students have left the bus. “Drivers should also get a special working license from the education department. Schools are supposed to have supervisors to observe the school transportation,” he added.
The primary police report had stated that after the school got over in the afternoon, the 36-year-old bus driver of Arab nationality saw the child in the bus and thought he was unconscious. He reported the matter to the administration of the school and the competent authorities.
A source in the Jeddah police had recently said that an initial examination of the body did not indicate any signs of violence.
He said the driver was under investigation and that the case has been referred to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution (BIPP).
In October last year, Abdul Malik, a Grade 3 student, died of suffocation after he was left in a school bus here.
The Asian bus driver was arrested then. The Education Ministry shut down the school two months later, in December, holding it responsible for negligence.
Source: Arab News