Long
journeys to school undermine Education

            “Long journeys to school have a negative impact on
student’s health and on their education achievement levels” said one of the
conclusions of a recent study on absenteeism by the scientific institute of the
German health Care insurance company AOK. According to VBE (Verband Bildung and
Erziehung) federal and national President Udo Beckmann, neither education
authorities nor national governments examined the impact of long travel hours on
the student’s health and learning abilities in going to or from schools. He
claimed that travelling for up to three hours per day tires a child’s body more
than in adults.

            He
also stated other consequential factors that affects a student physically and
psychologically like carrying a schoolbag longer, getting up earlier to go to
school and doing assignments later as well as reduction of free time necessary
for a balanced life. Because of these reasons, students may suffer the outcomes
like exhaustion and headaches.  Adults
that are part of a working environment have dealt and experienced such symptoms
and are mentally stronger than children, which are much more subject to stress
and exhaustion.

How
traffic affect commuters

In our daily lives commuters are
dealing with long traffic and other transportation hindrances. Based on LTO’s (Land
Transportation Office) study, in the past few years, there’s 2,101,148
registered vehicles around Metro Manila. The traffic worsens every year,
compared to past years. Inquirer.net listed some impacts of traffic on
commuters:

            Underperformance.
Based on the Philippine Statistics Authority, half of the 37 million workers in
the Philippines take the easiest route in going to their respected companies every
day. Billions of students are also depending on public transportations. Longer
the hours the students and workers deal with long traffic may affect their performance
physically and mentally.

            Unbalanced
time. People getting up earlier to prepare for work or school do not guarantee punctuality
since traffic is unpredictable, especially in times of rush hour.

            Overall
fatigue. Having to seat hours at the bus while thinking of problems at school
and work causes stress to commuters. With addition of pollution and heat may
result to having over fatigue and overtiredness.

            Inquirer.net
(2015) also suggested alternatives and tips on how commuters can protect their
health to prevent illnesses like drinking vitamins, exercise and balanced diet,
proper sleep, using masks for protection from air pollution. Traffic has become
part of every commuter’s lives, there is no easy way to escape from it, but
there is a way for commuters to overcome the negative effects from it by making
their lifestyles healthy as possible.