Some parents believe that schools and the government should be responsible for transporting children to and from school. Others think it is the parents’ responsibility. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write 250 words.
(From IELTS-Daily.com)
Who should pay for children to get to and from school? Should it be the goverment and local education authority or the children’s parents? I believe that a good system would be colloboration between all three parties, with every group providing some financial input.
On one side of the debate are those people who argue that schools and the government should organise school transport. They claim that this will have a positive impact on the environment since there would be fewer private car journeys. If local authorities organised buses to take children to and from school, it would mean that parents did not have to. This type of system could also be very beneficial because it could improve overall child safety as fewer individual cars on the road would limit the number of road traffic accidents.
The counter argument would be that each child’s parents should be responsible for school transport. Proponents of this position argue that other members of society should be f inancially penalised for the children of others. Organising a network of school buses and public transport would be a large burden for the public taxpayer system. So, the opponents to this solution claim that each parent should contribute to the associated costs.
My view is that the benefits to the school, the child and the environment would mean that a public school transport system is an excellent idea. I do not believe, however, that it should only be the responsibility of the local schools and the government to organise and pay for this. An ideal approach would be for the local authority to set up and partially fund the system, with the remaining money being subsidised by the parents. This way, fewer cars on the road would also benefit people without children.
In conclusion, the task of moving children from home to school is complex and expensive. Therefore, I believe that the responsibility should lie with both parents and local education authorities. In doing so, the overall impact to children and the environment would be extremely positive.