KINGSTON, Jamaica – The first 50 buses to be utilised in the dedicated rural school bus system are expected to arrive in the island within the next 60 days.

Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, Daryl Vaz, made the disclosure during a post-Cabinet press briefing held at Jamaica House on Wednesday.

“We’re going to get the 50 buses here. We are going to run them through the length and breadth of Jamaica to make sure that the specifications are right and they are fully approved by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) for the [start of school] September morning,” he said.

An initial 100 buses are being acquired and retrofitted for the school bus programme.

Minister Vaz said that these units will be used for the major corridors “and once we have the major corridors figured out then, of course, we move into the interiors”.

The rural school bus service is a joint initiative between the transport ministry and the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information.

Vaz informed that his ministry, through the JUTC, will provide the buses and assist with management and maintenance, while the education ministry will be responsible for funding and determining routes. The drivers will be cleared by the security forces and trained by the JUTC.

The buses will operate under a cashless system.

Students on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) will ride the buses free of cost, and there will be a concessionary rate for other students.

“There is an app where you can track the bus, so parents can know at all times where their children are, and the JUTC and the Government can know whether the driver is driving correctly, what he’s doing and what he’s not doing,” the minister said.

He noted that the buses will run in the mornings and afternoons, adding that the same regulations that apply when students are on school property will extend to the buses.

He said that teachers will be assigned, based on where they live, to travel on the buses to make sure that what obtains on the bus is “what we want for our children”.

With 162 remote rural schools with 15,168 students; 440 rural schools with 105,000 students; and 379 urban schools with 257,000 students, Minister Vaz said it will take some time for the rural school bus service to have the desired impact.

As such, he said, “there will still be a place for the public passenger vehicles to operate.”

The cost per bus in approximately US$50,000 or $7.5 million.

–         JIS