Many senior government officials in China have been forced to take driving lessons after their chauffeur-driven cars were taken away as part of the government's austerity-drive to cut wasteful spending. Driving instructors in Changchun in northeastern Jilin province said the number of students at their schools had risen significantly this year and some were government officials getting behind the wheel for the first time, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Driving schools in Fuzhou in eastern Fujian province have also said that numbers had increased due to officials taking lessons after the government reforms were introduced. One school said more than 10 officials from one authority had enrolled at the same time, according to the report.
However, the officials are so used to taking charge and having their own way that they make poor students, the report said. Driving instructors in Jilin said the senior officials were often older and with strong opinions about how to do things, so teaching them was a "headache".
"I have a 56-year-old student who is the director of his government department and he was forced to apply to learn to drive thanks to the public car reforms," an anonymous coach was quoted as saying.
"Since he is the person in charge in his department and the one making final decisions, he continues this habit and drives exactly as he wants. Therefore, he's failed his test several times," the coach said.
Another coach said it was painful to teach some officials. "They pick up driving skills relatively slowly compared with younger students. What's more, having been leaders for years or powerful and aggressive in their department, these officials are erratic in learning," the coach was quoted as saying by Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.
The central government announced last year that it was curbing the use of publicly-funded cars by officials and it told local authorities to produce detailed plans about how they would do the same by the end of 2015. All senior ranks below deputy ministers in the central government are not allowed to commute in officials cars and are given a subsidy to fund their transport instead.
Source: PTI
