In the village of Kenkiyak in the Aktobe region, a school bus has been idle for about two years.
According to Tengrinews.kz, children are forced to get to school on their own, which worries parents due to early darkness and stray dogs.
"A brand new bus has been sitting idly in the schoolyard for two years now. There is no transport service. The children walk to school themselves. It gets dark quickly now, and we are afraid for them. There are many stray dogs in Kenkiyak, which could attack. But transport for the children to school has not been organised," said a resident of the village of Kenkiyak, Yertai Aitzhanov.
For their part, the education department of the Aktobe region stated that the bus is idle due to a lack of a driver. As it turns out, the salary for a school bus driver in the region is 86,000 tenge, making the vacancy unattractive.
"The bus with 40 seats was handed over to the school in 2023. To date, an advertisement for a school bus driver has been posted three times on the electronic labour exchange Enbek.kz. The district education department and the school administration also offered this vacancy to village drivers with category D. However, unfortunately, due to the low salary, no one responded to the position," the department reported.
For context, in September of last year, it was reported that children living in the "Alatau-fazenda" dacha community in the Almaty region are forced to use taxis to travel to school, which is located 10 km from the settlement.
At that time, it emerged that local residents face problems with poor road conditions and interruptions in water supply, but their main issue is the lack of a school and public transport.