School return revives warning over unlicensed drivers

After seven months away from their classrooms, 157,000 children return to government schools today, with parents told to check that anyone paid to drive them is licensed.

Private schools resumed lessons earlier this week, a few days ahead of the public-school system. Government schools reopen after safety checks, repairs and preparations by the Education Ministry, following months in which teaching was moved online during the Iranian attacks on Bahrain.

Last year, two cases involving unlicensed school transport put children at risk.

In October 2025, a four-and-a-half-year-old boy died after being left for several hours inside a closed private car used to take children to schools and kindergartens.

The woman driving the car told prosecutors she had been taking children for payment without a licence. The vehicle was also not licensed for passenger transport.

A month later, a girl was left asleep inside another unlicensed private car after it broke down. The vehicle was then lifted on to a recovery truck with the child still inside.

The driver realised she was there only after receiving a telephone call asking where she was. Prosecutors later ordered his detention while the case was investigated.

Shura Council member Lina Habib, deputy head of the woman and child affairs committee, said parents must check both the driver and vehicle before paying anyone to take their children to school.

‘A parent’s responsibility begins with checking that the vehicle and driver hold the licences required by the relevant authorities to transport students,’ she told The Daily Tribune.

Knowing the driver personally, or relying on recommendations from friends and relatives, is not enough, she said.

Habib said Bahrain’s traffic rules treat vehicles according to their use and place those carrying schoolchildren under specific rules.

Parents should be able to check easily that licences are valid and that both the driver and vehicle are licensed to carry pupils, she said.

‘This deserves continued legislative and regulatory attention, especially when it involves children in kindergarten and primary school, who require the greatest degree of care and protection,’ Habib said.

She said punishment should match the seriousness of an offence and take repeat breaches into account.

Road checks, cameras, digital records and government databases can help catch drivers carrying pupils for money without permission, she added.