Reopening of schools adds to Kuwait traffic woes

KUWAIT: Students in Kuwait began a new academic year this week. Ministry of Education announced yesterday that 200 kindergartens, located in six educational areas are ready to receive 43,413 students today. The Ministry of Education has issued a decision to extend the registration period for kindergartens from Sunday until September 20 in all educational areas. On the other hand, 490 schools have received 221,083 students with 97,291 students in elementary schools and 123,792 students in the middle schools.

Start of the new academic year is usually distinguished with congestions on the roads - a situation that also warrants cooperation on part of the motorists. Major roads in the country get besieged by traffic each morning and afternoon. As schools reopen, the roads close to schools are expected to witness the highest congestions as families compete against time as they drop their children at schools, then head to work, and then go back to schools to pick up their children.

Kuwait is home to over 1,925,168 vehicles, of which more than 1,552,738 are privately-owned. Traffic chaos has become so inseparably entwined with the school year that most people have come to accept it as an inevitable part of living in Kuwait. Congestion on our roads have been attributed by various authorities to poor road infrastructure, ongoing constructions, too many vehicles, lack of efficient public transport among others. - Agencies