The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to remove the minimum education requirement for obtaining a commercial vehicle driving licence. The ministry said on Tuesday that the same has been done in order to boost employment opportunities, particularly for skilled persons belonging to the underprivileged sections of the society. At the moment, under the Rule 8 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, a commercial vehicle driver needs to have a minimum education qualification i.e. he/she should have passed class 8.
The statement from the ministry said that the removal of this requirement is going to open up employment opportunities for unemployed persons, the majority of which include the youth. Furthermore, this decision is going to help meet the shortage of nearly 22 lakh drivers in the transport and logistics sector, which is hindering its growth. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has initiated this process of the amendment of Rule 8 of the Central Motor Vehicles 1989 with the draft notification in this regard is going to be issued soon.
The ministry said that currently, there is a large number of employed persons, especially in the rural areas which do not have formal educations though they are literate and skilled. The statement from the ministry said that in a recent meeting with the Haryana Government, the later had requested for the removal of the rule which mandates minimum education requirement. The request from the state government came in the wake of the population from the economically weaker Mewat region which is dependent on low-income jobs, such as driving, for their livelihood.
The state government had submitted that many people in the region possess the required skill but not the required educational qualification, and were finding it difficult to obtain driving license, it said, adding hence it was felt that driving being more a matter of skill than of educational competence, the condition of minimum educational qualification acts as a hindrance for the otherwise eligible unemployed youth.
However, while removing the requirement of minimum educational qualification, the Ministry has strongly emphasised upon training and skill testing of drivers so that road safety is not compromised in any way. Anyone applying for a driving license will have to mandatorily pass a stringent skill test, it said, adding the ministry has emphasised that training imparted by a school or establishment as mentioned in the the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 should ensure that the driver can read signs and perform logistical duty such as maintenance of driver logs, inspection of trucks and trailers, submission of pre-trip and post-trip records, determination of discrepancies in paperwork, effective communication to report safety hazards.
Moreover, schools and establishments which are providing vocational training and skilling facilities are subject to regulatory control by the states. Hence, the training imparted should be of high quality, covering all aspects of driving a particular type of motor vehicle. The ministry had already proposed the removal of the requirement for educational qualification in the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill that got passed by the previous Lok Sabha. The subject was also deliberated upon by the Standing Committee and Select committee of Parliament.
