Schools will have to keep tabs on the number of pool cars that are plying to and from their school, the number of students being transported in each vehicle, the areas they are coming from and who are the vendors providing the service, several principals said.

According to a just-released government advisory, schools will have to designate a transport manager to oversee that the pool cars and buses adhere to safety norms.

One school said they will form a parent regulatory body, from among parents who avail of the pool car services for their children and who will work closely with the school transport manager.

Several schools that run their buses have a system in place but they have no control over pool cars and have so long been apathetic to exercise any control in the absence of a government directive.

On Saturday, several schools said they had yet to formally receive the government advisory.

Government sources said it would reach all schools by next week.

“I will appoint an estate or transport manager who would monitor the number of children sitting in a pool car. Often we see children packed like sardines and the pool car crowded much beyond capacity,” said Terence Ireland, principal, St James’ School.

The government has said it is preferable to have lady attendants in every pool car.

It is not uncommon to see children take their hands out of the window on busy thoroughfares while the driver is busy negotiating the traffic.

If a lady attendant becomes an expensive option, parents should volunteer to be on duty on rotation, a principal said.

“We will form a parent regulatory body that will coordinate with the school transport manager. The school will have to keep an area-wise data bank of the number of pool cars. We will also see how many vendors are operating and whether they do so from multiple locations,” said Anjana Saha, principal, Mahadevi Birla World Academy.

Sri Sri Academy said they will ask the pool cars to provide the vehicle’s papers to the school so it knows the documents are valid.

The school will ask the pool cars to submit a statement or a certificate that would claim that the vehicle is complying with government regulations, one principal said.

“We have teachers on duty during dispersal when children get into pool cars outside our school premises. But the current advisory would require us to step up our responsibilities,” said Gargi Banerjee, principal, Sri Sri Academy.

“We have school buses but are incurring losses because many parents prefer pool cars as they provide doorstep service. It is convenient for working parents,” said Banerjee.

School buses, which are safer, are comparatively more expensive than pool cars and cannot enter bylanes and pick up children only from designated stops.

Indus Valley World School said they would send a copy of the government advisory to parents, once they receive it so that they too are aware of the safety norms.

“If it is a government advisory we will have to comply,” said director Amita Prasad.

“But we don’t have control over the pool cars as much as we have over the buses, because we own them. We do not have any regulatory authority over them,” said Rodney Borneo, principal, St Augustine’s Day School Shyamnagar.

Ireland said that while the school will do its duty of asking for documents and details, their hands are tied beyond a point.

“If the pool cars do not comply the government will have to take action and we can only report about it,” he said.