School bus drivers to attend psychopedagogy courses

The Ministry of Education intends to introduce a mandatory course of psychopedagogy, a combination of pedagogy and psychology, for the drivers of school buses. Deputy Minister Loretta Handrabura told Info-Prim Neo that such a course is necessary so that drivers are able to manage whatever conflict may arise as children are carried to and from school. “We held a meeting to discuss the development of a regulation which explicitly sets out the functions of these drivers. Apart from the basic training necessary for a bus driver, they also must attend a psychopedagogy module”, said the deputy minister. Another issue discussed was salary raises for the drivers, who are doing a different job than other bus drivers; often they have to take care of the atmosphere in the bus instead of just driving it, argued Loretta Handrabura. She said that today drivers earn up to 1,200 lei a month and the proposal is to raise their salary to 2,600 lei. The Ministry of Labor will examine this proposal. The drivers of school buses are selected in contests organized by the Education Department. The Government has bought 109 buses that will serve 7,000 schoolchildren starting September 3.