Monitoring driving schools

7 January 2011 09:30 am

The Transport Ministry has begun monitoring driving schools to ensure they provide a quality service and will take stringent measures against them when necessary, the Transport Ministry said today. 

“Road accidents are increasing annually. 90% of road accidents take place solely due to reckless driving. Driving schools are responsible for the standard of driving in the country. If they do not take adequate measures to improve their standards we will cancel their driving school permits,” Deputy Transport Minister, Rohana Dissanayake said.

He said that driving schools will be monitored every four months. He said that the ministry will collect information on driving schools as well as those with driving licenses and keep a tab on the number of road accidents that take place on a regular basis.

“If we find that driving schools are producing a significant number of reckless drivers we will have to take action against them. If they are functioning very poorly we will have to revoke their driving school permits,” he said.

He said driving schools take large bribes from their students and pass them from their examinations based on bribes and the ministry has received a number of complaints on the matter. “On some occasions the tutor takes the driving students for a drink and it is unprofessional for them to behave in that manner,” he said.

He said there are 644 driving schools in the country of which seven are run by the Ceylon Transport Board.  (Olindhi Jayasundere)