WITH the start of the new school year just days away, the National Parent Teachers’ Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ) has reiterated its call for a dedicated public transport system for students even as it expresses concern about the safety of schools in rural communities where migratory gangs have sought refuge.

President of the NPTAJ Stewart Jacobs, speaking with the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday, said while parents are expecting a smooth start to the school year, the association has lingering concerns about several issues.

“There are some burning issues that affected us last year and even the year before and the NPTAJ is on record asking for some consideration for these things. One is the dedication of a transportation system for our children to travel to and from school because our children are being exposed to lewd and callous conversations and music in and around the public transport system and even the places they go to wait for the transportation,” Jacobs told the Observer.

“So we are asking again for the authorities to really consider bending the budget to find the necessary means to get our children transported to and from school. This is something that is most important because what it does is create a better balance, a better learning experience for our children rather than having them exposed to and from school,” added Jacobs.

In June, minister with responsibility for transport Daryl Vaz indicated that the Government was contemplating implementing a Rural School Transportation System (RSTS), on a phased basis.

Vaz said then the programme would be aimed at ensuring the provision of an accessible, safe, reliable, efficient, affordable, and welcoming mode of transportation for students in rural areas.

He acknowledged that while students living in and attending schools within the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR) benefit from the service of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) and other sub-franchisees, this was not the case for rural students.

Jacobs, in the meantime, said the safety conversation for rural students should be extended to the security of varying school plants.

“Nothing much has happened since last year in terms of ensuring that schools are more safe from the migratory gangs that come in or the encroachment of gangs in and around schools because no longer is crime and uptown or downtown phenomenon it is now spreading to the rural areas and it is a scourge,” the NPTAJ president said.

In June last year, following the abduction of eight-year-old Danielle Rowe who died in hospital three days after she was snatched from the entrance of Braeton Primary and Infant School in Portmore, the Government indicated that closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras will be installed at the entrances of primary schools. Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in noting that the Government is building out the network of CCTV cameras across the country said, “massive investments are going to be made in that. In fact, the Government will move to make it such that all public entities must have closed-circuit cameras at the entrance and exit to their public service space, which will include schools”.

Jacobs, in the meantime, has urged that the post-Hurricane Beryl repairs to schools be done with allowances for retrofitting buildings which have no suitable access for the disabled.

“The disabled amongst us have a right to access any building, any space that is public or even private and therefore all schools should be able to accommodate those who are challenged to go up a stair or enter. Be it primary, basic, secondary or tertiary, it must be done to ensure that those who are so challenged are able to get through. All the schools that are being repaired now, it makes no sense at all to fix these schools without having these things done, it’s a given,” he told the Observer.

He further urged that efforts be made to ensure that schools now under repair are retrofitted with hurricane resistant roofs.

The Ministry of Education this week indicated that it had accelerated its efforts to repair schools in time for the September 2 reopening. Of the island’s 1,009 public schools, 352 were damaged by the hurricane which hit the island on July 3. More than 200 were up to Wednesday still without electricity supply, according to Education Minister Fayval Williams.