TRNC transport operators refuse to carry schoolchildren without a signed protocol

A day before the start of the school year in Northern Cyprus, two transport operators’ associations announced that they would not operate school routes. Neither the KAR-İŞ union nor the Turkish Cypriot Public Transporters’ Association will begin carrying students until a protocol is signed and agreements are concluded with the relevant ministries.

KAR-İŞ head Fuat Topaloğlu said that negotiations with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport, the Traffic Department and the Traffic Police had produced no result. According to him, instead of a systematic solution, the institutions had entrenched confusion, and transport services would not begin under such conditions.

Berkşan Bekir Akandere, chairman of the Public Transporters’ Association, added that written submissions listing complaints and proposals had been made over approximately three months, but decisions had not been taken in time, and the promised exchange of information with the associations had never taken place.

The transport operators stress that the issue is not only about raising fares. The main demand is to bring school transport into line with current realities: in expanding districts, they say, the routes lack a reliable legal basis. The associations want a document to establish children’s safety, the boundaries of the operator’s responsibility and the rights of both sides.

The school year in the TRNC begins on 14 September: primary school students will return to their desks on that day, while secondary and vocational-technical schools will begin classes on 15 September. Around 59,000 students are expected at 196 schools, with 6,500 teachers working with them.