KINGSTON, Jamaica — Transport Minister and Member of Parliament for Portland Western, Daryl Vaz, has announced that an additional 110 school buses will arrive on the island by July to service 258 rural schools.

Vaz made the announcement on Friday during a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Trelawny South meeting.

“I am going to land in Jamaica before the end of June, first week of July, 110 school buses dedicated for rural Jamaica. They are going to roll out, nine of them in the parish of Trelawny,” he said.

The transport minister said the buses will be dedicated to students in rural areas to transport them in a safe and timely manner. Noting that the building out of the school bus system is not meant to compete against taxi drivers but to instead work with them, Vaz warned supporters to ignore criticisms from those who oppose the school bus system, stating that they are not only “badmind” but “double and triple badmind”.

“Some of them that represent rural areas don’t understand what mothers and children and parents have to go through to send their children to school every day and the stress and the trauma of not knowing whether those children will get to school and reach home and what time a night them going to reach home,” Vaz said.

The minister outlined that parents will be able to track the movement of their children who utilise the buses due to the technology that will be incorporated.

“September morning is going to be a new and transformative morning for the people of rural Jamaica who are long suffering and deserve no less than a proper transport system…The best part is that the parents will be able to know where their children are because they have to swipe a card when they go on and they have to swipe the card when they come off because we using technology,” he explained.

He continued, “We know how the bus driver driving the bus because we can watch him, and every bus driver must be cleared by the police before him go behind the wheel and carry the children of this country.”

Vaz further promised to have a school bus system for the 850 rural schools across the island within three years, should the JLP regain power.

“You can choose badmind, who ah wish for the bus to bruk down and ah wish for all kind of evil and bad things. Or you can wish for what is good for you, your children, the children of the future and the best for the country,” he added.