The scheme allowed school students aged 12 years and over to travel at half fare on journeys around school hours on any day except Sundays and school holidays, the operator being reimbursed on the basis of a flat-rate for each annual pass, issued free-of-charge to students. In 1972 the scheme was extended to transport provided by two other transport operators who had also operated their own schemes.
186.
If the student travel scheme was to become permanent, then it was important that the original short-term objectives be reviewed at an early stage and full consideration given to its long-term objectives. It is an accepted principle that when the Government embarks on a programme of expenditure, such as the student travel scheme, it should adopt the following procedures:
decide and clearly define the policy objectives; and
having satisfied itself as to the merits of its objectives, consider the various policy options for the implementation of the objectives, including the cost and benefit of each option and the effectiveness of each of these options in achieving the objectives.
Only after going through such procedures would it be possible for the Government to make a decision based on the best value for money to be achieved from the expenditure incurred. The Government failed to follow all aspects of these procedures when considering the long-term justification for the student travel scheme and consequently, the expenditure on it was allowed to escalate towards uncertain educational goals of questionable relevance to the Government's overall objectives.
187.
L
The Government's failure centred around two serious mistakes. The first mistake was the decision to include in the Memorandum for the Executive Council introducing the student travel scheme in 1971, a statement that the scheme should be considered as part and parcel of the Government's general policy of assistance towards education. This gave the scheme the stamp of permanence but at that time no proper consideration had been given to such long-term educational policy objectives. It was not until nearly three years later, in 1974, that it emerged that neither the Director of Education nor the Board of Education had been consulted prior to the approval of the scheme and the Director of Education has since maintained that the scheme contributed little to educational objectives. He claimed that the student travel scheme was
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