Tackling Transport Issues | Insights from Mamer School Meeting

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European schools system

European schools system is like a never-ending maze of paperwork and bureaucracy.

It’s as if they believe that the more forms you fill out, the smarter you become. Secretary general and deputy secretary general are too busy worrying about their pensions and summer vacations to actually produce anything useful.

It’s a system where children are just tiny cogs in a big bureaucratic machine, and education takes a backseat to administrative tasks.

It’s time for a major overhaul, because right now, the European schools system is about as effective as a chocolate teapot.

Transport issues concerning EE Lux 2

Meeting of Local Staff committee of the Commission of  27/2/2012

The Director of Europeaan school Luxemoburg 2, Mr Tourenmire, was invited to the meeting to explain the transport issues:

Transport by train:

  • Older children (>12) would be encourage to take the train
  • Journey only takes 10 minutes
  • A train is scheduled every 15 minutes.
  • Parents can accompany children – Jobkaart would be extended to make this possibility free of charge.

Problems of security

    • Mamer is not a proper station, but only a stop.
    • EE II has asked the Luxembourgish authorities to look into making the site more secure.
    • Video surveillance will be installed.
    • For the first 4 weeks a human presence will be present on site to manage the situation. During this period a study will be made of the number of people, type of use of the station, in order to make proposals for the future.
    • APCEE suggests making a secure area outside the station where children could wait for the train to arrive before entering onto the platform.

Transport by public bus:

  • Bus n° 8 will leave from the station and end at EE2 (up to now, terminus at the Belle Etoile).

Transport by school bus:

  • 9 new bus routes (without supervision)

NEW ! bus from Bonnevoie and Limperstberg not included in the February plan

Transport by “navettes” to EE2:

  • Direct from Kirchberg to EE2
  • 9 routes from different pick-up points on Kirchberg, Cloche d’Or, Gare
  • Can leave from various buildings but needs somewhere to park for 15 minutes in order for all children to board safely
  • Accompanied by an adult (contract with firm via call for tenders)
  • Foreseen for younger children who cannot take the bus alone, but open to all
  • Parents may accompany children
  • Navette would then bring parents back to their place of work on Kirchberg etc in the morning

Transport by “navettes” from EE2 to Kirchberg:

  • 3 navettes return from EE2 to Kirchberg – 13:00, 16:30 and 18:00
  • NEW ! Foreseen also for children from CPE to come back to Kirchberg
  • Smaller children accompanied to bus by educator from CPE
  • Children taken care of in room in EE 1 until parents arrive to pick them up (limited time to be decided)
  • Navette could take children to different buildings but needs the administrations of the different buildings/institutions to provide a secure room and  surveillance where children can wait

Financing:

  • Public transport costs can be covered by buying a Jumbo card for those children over 12 years of age
  • Costs for school buses and “navette” will be covered by the Luxembourgish State
  • Only cost for navette at 18:00 is not yet clear
  • Parents will have to pay for the costs of the person “accompagnateur” and supervision in the room of Lux II – Approximately 1€ per child per day. It is possible that this cost will be covered by the Institutions

Questionnaire:

  • EE2 will send a questionnaire to parents via e-mail in the next days in order to find out their transport needs. Only after careful evaluation of the replies can a transport plan be finalised.

N.B. The issue of secondary school children of Lux II attending the study centre on Kirchberg should be raised with OIL (possible as no fixed language sections). Transport to bring them back to Kirchberg would be available at lunchtime and after school.

The new proposed mobility plan (with the 2 new routes and navette from CPE) will be published on the school website at the same time as the questionnaire.

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Aim of the European Schools

Educated side by side, untroubled from infancy by divisive prejudices, acquainted with all that is great and good in the different cultures, it will be borne in upon them as they mature that they belong together. Without ceasing to look to their own lands with love and pride, they will become in mind Europeans, schooled and ready to complete and consolidate the work of their fathers before them, to bring into being a united and thriving Europe.

Marcel Decombis, Head of European School, Luxembourg between 1953 and 1960