Photo: RNZ
An Otago principal says it "doesn't feel like common sense prevails" when it comes to cuts to rural school bus services.
So far this year 176 routes have been or are being reviewed by the Ministry of Education.
Twenty-one routes have been cut and 11 have been replaced with different routes or combined with others.
And Otago schools have been hit hard by the charges that for some came in at the start of Term 3.
To get ministry-funded school transport assistance there must be eight or more students using the bus and they have to go to a state or state integrated school within a certain distance.
Colin McHutchon, principal of Heriot School in west Otago, told Checkpoint he was disappointed about some of the decisions.
"It doesn't feel like common sense prevails when they make the decisions, especially about routes and route design."
McHutchon said "there's a lot of variables as far as designing the routes go".
"Often in remote places such as ours, in one space it might be empty for a month or so and then there might be a number of families."
One of his school's routes was cancelled, he said, which puts much more burdens on parents or caregivers to get their children at least some of the way to school.
"So basically parents pretty much need to bundle kids into the car in the morning and then they would travel quite a distance in order to meet up with another bus route and hopefully they can get that timing right and hopefully the bus is on time.
"The responsibility is with mum or dad or whoever's looking after them to make sure, especially in the case of 5-year-olds that are waiting with them, as the 5-year-old can't wait on the side of the road for the bus obviously."
The Ministry of Education has said the primary responsibility for transporting children to school rests with caregivers.
"I understand that to a point, but as far as having the right to a bus, I think if things are resourced in a different way it might be able to suit schools and communities more specifically."
McHutchon was asked if he thought parents at his school might pay to ensure bus service.
"One hundred percent, if that's what it took."
