Appeal against increase in school bus fees - PLMGPS

We note that Paya Lebar Methodist Girls Primary School has appointed Raffles to coordinate school bus services for 2020. This led to a significant increase in school bus fees for parents, despite of MOE's assurance that its intention of introducing 9 months payment schedule is to reduce parents' financial hardship - total amount for a year is supposed to be the same whether parents are on the 9 months or 12 months payment schedule, but this is not the case. For example, the majority of parents shared that their fees have gone up drastically. For example:

Parent A  - from $90/month to $210/month: Total increase over 1 year $810 - 75% increase

Parent B (Punggol) - from $95 to $210 : Total increase over 1 year $750 -66%

Parent C (Pasir Ris) - from $160 to $290: Total increase over 1 year $690 - 36%

This price spike is clearly in contravention of MOE's intent to keep cost the same for families.

The increase is very high, since it is essentially the same service to parents, with no value added to justify such an increase. Parents have no need for a school bus coordinator since we have been liaising with the bus drivers directly.

This will cause unnecessary financial burden for many parents who consider school bus services as a necessity, especially for those who have many children. For them and those who do not have a car, there is no choice for them. Cost of living in Singapore is already very high, there is no need to cause further burden to us, for no justifiable reason.

As the parents, the end paying customer, have no say in this decision, we hope the school would re-consider this from the parents' point of view and follow MOE's intent, and keep fees the same instead of implementing agent inflated fees.