Parents whose two children were not accommodated by the new school transport scheme have called out the government for making promises that they say it was “ill-equipped to keep”.

The parents explained that they had always taken their children to their independent school themselves. Driving from Mosta, and later from Attard, to Pembroke, they explained that they “were waiting with great anticipation for the introduction of the new school transport system being presently introduced by the government as this would save us a long drive twice daily”.

Last Sunday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat deemed the scheme a success, and the measure of that was that the country will find itself in a situation in which there will be no vans available for use in the mornings and afternoons.

Muscat also called for patience as this scheme was new for the country, explaining that “there will be confusion” but they “will try and coordinate as best as possible”, insisting that this “is an important learning curve for us”.

But these parents were not impressed. “It was only very late in the summer when the government announced that parents are to make their own arrangements”, by which time CO-OP was already fully booked, the said in an email to The Malta Independent. And, considering that it was the only service provider that liaised with their children’s school, they will need to take and pick up their children to and from school themselves, causing them “a great deal of upset”.

Not to mention that they also allege that CO-OP had taken its application forms offline, and refused to take any calls. This meant that the only way of reaching them was through the school, but they have unfortunately not heard anything back.

Being parents that were unable to get a place on the scheme, they found it “extremely insulting” that the Prime Minister “would refer to those 900 parents who have not yet been placed as having failed to plan in advance”.

They added that the lack of planning and organisation was “clearly on the government’s part, having left all announcements to the eleventh hour”.

They go on to call it “rather short-sighted” for the government to make promises that it was “ill-equipped to keep”, while “failing to give updates until the very last minute when it was effectively too late”.

“We are disappointed by the evident lack of planning and crisis approach to something that would have been much better organised and implemented had it been delayed by a year.

“We also find it discriminatory that we will have to take our children to school under any condition other than that which other parents are receiving, and even more, to do so at our expense, particularly since we are both taxpayers.”

They close off their letter by expressing hope that CO-OP will add on more vehicles or trips, and that their children will eventually be fitted into this scheme. Although they make it clear that they are not prepared to accept any “stop-gap measures” that would see their children sharing transport with children from other schools due to bullying.