Student Transport Bedlam

Habtamu Asmamaw, 23, is a fourth-year law student at Dilla University, located in Dilla in the Southern regional state. He is 900km from his home town of Merawi, in the West Gojjam Zone of the Amhara Regional State, 33 km from Bahir Dar – the regional capital.

During the last summer, however, he nearly reached boiling point, almost deciding not to return to his hometown. This was due to severe transport problems and other related issues that he witnessed on his way from Merawi to Dilla.

“Last year, on our way to Dilla, we stopped at Bahir Dar’s bus terminal in search of transport. At that time, there was an acute transport shortage and a lot of chaos around the bus station,” Habtamu recalls. “Because of this chaos, some bags were stolen.”

On Tuesday, October 2, 2013, Habtamu was at the larger intercity bus terminal known as Awtobis Tera, located in Addis Ketema District. Sitting near a public phone booth surrounded by bags, he looked tired and worn out because of the long journey, which also included travelling at night.  Following the opening of various new government universities and the expansion of existing ones, the absorption rate of universities has significantly increased. At the same time, the number of students moving from different parts of the country to the various universities has also gone up immensely.

This transport chaos also comes at the end of each academic year, when universities compel students to leave their premises, without facilitating any transport, according to the students Fortune talked to. The problems faced by the students are severe. They may not receive transport money from their families and the decision by the universities often comes abruptly.  Because of this, they will be exposed to additional costs and muggers, according to many of the students contacted by Fortune.

According to the Federal Transport Authority (FTA), there are 3,694 transport routes across the country. Of these, 139 are served by transport buses with more than 47 seats. There are 1,014 such buses operating on these routes, as well as 42 buses, labelled ‘special buses’ by the FTA, from  companies such as Selam and Sky.

“Currently, we have assigned 100 buses for the annual pilgrimage to Gishen Mariam,” says Abelneh Agdew, information & communication process head at the FTA. “In addition, a lot of buses are deployed for the Meskel holiday.”

Many universities are demanding their students to report for registration, with not more than two or three days difference between any two universities.

The FTA blames the universities for poor timing, due to not considering the holidays, and for the trend of calling their students at the same time, which causes transport chaos.

The version from the Ministry of Education (MoE) was different, however.

“We made arrangements with universities to avoid calling their students at the same time,” says Desalgne Samuel, communication director at the MoE. “Universities on the same route are ordered not to call students within a short period of time.”

But some of the universities contacted by Fortune disagreed with the Ministry. The universities, such as the Mekelle University, claim that every university has its own academic calendar and that they are working according to these.

“We called our students seven days before the registration day,” said Yohannes Kassa, student service centre coordinator at Mekelle University.

On that same day that Fortune visited the bus terminal dominated by a large number of students, Yoseph Getu – a third-year electrical engineering student from Addis Abeba, who was about to leave for Jimma University for registration – was there. Yoseph chose this day to travel based on the assumption that, as it was the registration deadline, most of the students would be there already and, thus, the transport scarcity might ease.

“The normal tariff to Jimma is 102 Br, now we are being forced to pay 150 Br,” he said. “I am not willing to pay this additional money today. I will try my luck tomorrow morning.”

The FTA says this price increment is due to the number of passengers because of holidays and other occasions. During these occasions, there is a 50pc increment from the normal tariff. When the number of students becomes excessive, the FTA uses additional buses and their price is different from the regular ones. This mechanism obliges buses to deliver students with the 50pc increase in fee.

A driver, who requested anonymity, is not happy about providing compulsory transportation, even charging 50pc higher, because it is likely that he will not get enough passengers on the way back. Such buses, he says, are not even allowed to enter into the bus terminal.

Aside from Yoseph and Habtamu, there were also students planning to travel to their respective universities before the registration date, in fear of the transport chaos. Bisrat Tenker, 22, a psychology student at the Mekele University started his journey to Mekele from Assela, in Oromia, four days before registration. Last year, his bag was stolen in the chaos at the bus terminal.

Despite these complaints, the MoE believes that it has done its best to overcome this transport problem by working in collaboration with the FTA and the universities themselves, according to Desalgne.

“Last year, we extended registration deadlines due to the transport chaos,” Desalgne says. “Also, we forwarded a letter of cooperation to the FTA.”

But, the FTA denied receiving any letter from the MoE and blamed the latter for having a lack of interest to work on the issue.

“Last year, we prepared a directive and forwarded it to various universities, the transport associations and the MoE, but there is still nothing from the Ministry’s side,” Abelneh states.

Whatever the claims and counterclaims might be, Habtamu finally got up from the area where he had sat to take a break and joined the long line in front of the Dilla bus ticket office.


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