DVLA To Close Down 31 Driving Schools

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) will start an exercise next Monday to close down driving schools that have failed to meet the set standard.

So far 31 driving schools, said to be using unroadworthy vehicles and untrained staff as driver instructors, have been earmarked for closure.

The Chief Technical Officer of the DVLA, Mr Joseph Amamoo, told the Daily Graphic that the move was in line with the Road Traffic Act of 2004, Act 683 (4) and meant to deal with unscrupulous activities of some driving schools.

 “The Licensing Authority may, if a registered school no longer complies with the requirement referred to in section (3), suspend the registration of that driving school for such period as it may determine, or disregard or cancel the registration in the prescribed manner.” , says the Act.

He explained that the exercise was also intended to restore sanity in the system, as well as ensure that people did not set up schools to provide sub-standard service to clients.

Mr Amamoo said the DVLA conducted an exercise throughout the country to inspect all the driving schools and came to the conclusion that some of them were not operating according to standards.

He said the DVLA monitoring team also observed that standards set for the operation of driving schools had drastically declined even after persistent education and advice.

Mr Amamoo described the situation as disturbing and said the DVLA was left with no other option than to ensure that such recalcitrant schools were taken out of the system to serve as a deterrent to others.

He said some of the schools had relocated to smaller structures after registration, a situation that created a lot of congestion in the classrooms.

“That does not enhance teaching and learning and driving should not be learnt in such a manner because students will not pay attention to what they are being taught,” he said.

Mr Amamoo said some of the schools had also been found to be using wooden structures and containers as classrooms while others used part of their classrooms for computer lessons.

He said in this case, while the driving lectures were underway, the computer class was also in progress.

“How can each of the category of students pay attention to grasp what is being taught? This is highly unacceptable and we will not all allow that to happen,” Mr Amamoo added.

He said the use of unroadworthy vehicles to teach the students posed a serious risk to the life of not only the students but the instructor as well.

Mr Amamoo said he was hopeful that the exercise to be carried out next week would save the lives of innocent but desperate driving students.

Story by Charles Benoni Okine