Assessment of School Bus Assistant’s Safety Perspective in the State of Qatar

Abstract

School Bus Assistants (SBA) are appointed to bridge the communication gap between students and drivers, and to ensure the safety of students on the school buses. The purpose of this study is to assess the safety procedures followed and students’ behaviour on school buses, and further, determine the general perception of school buses from SBA perspective in the State of Qatar. A well-designed questionnaire was distributed to the SBA serving on the school buses of public schools. Statistical analysis was undertaken using IBM SPSS software for a sample of 108 responses. It can be concluded that the SBA were performing their duties appropriately and were mostly satisfied with the school bus services. Further, the students behaved well on school buses as schools assisted in managing students’ behavior on school buses. The SBA suggested use of advanced technologies such as bus tracking systems, surveillance cameras etc. to improve school bus services and also indicated need for more trainings/workshops on school bus safety. These results can be used for improving the school bus service and the training/awareness provided to SBA to improve the school bus safety.