High grade

ONE year after its full roll-out, the National Rural School Bus Programme is getting high marks from educators who say it has largely delivered on its promise to make transportation safer, more affordable, and more reliable for thousands of students.

The programme serves more than 13,000 students daily across 352 schools on 86 routes, using a fleet of 110 buses. And Christine Wright, principal of St Mary High School, described its impact as “tremendous”.

According to Wright, students and parents have embraced the service because of its reliability and the financial relief it provides.

“Once they recognised the financial implications, and the fact that they would be at school on time, they started to gravitate [towards it],” said Wright.

Similar sentiments were shared by principal of Eccleston Primary and Infant School in St Ann, Keisha Wisdom, who told the Jamaica Observer that the school bus system has transformed students’ daily commute.

“What the school bus does is that it drops my children right at the gate… that, for me, is safety at its highest,” Wisdom said, describing the programme’s impact as “very, very great”.

“The only thing we would have wanted is that we get a bigger bus for that route. A bigger school bus would do us well so that even more children can get on it,” added Wisdom.

She said approximately 150 of her students consistently use the service during the school year, with parents of incoming grade seven students already seeking information on how their children can register to travel on the school buses.

Similarly, Brown’s Town High Principal Alfred Thomas said parents attending orientation for incoming students were requesting access to the registration link.

He said the school has issued more than 300 bus cards and is served by between three and five buses daily, depending on availability.

In the meantime, Maggotty High School Principal Sean Graham said, while the initiative is beneficial, he would have welcomed greater consultation between the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), which administers the service, and his school community during the implementation.

“I don’t think the consultation, especially to engage the high school, parents, school community, has been done sufficiently… Hopefully, over time, if there’s more engagement or collaboration and discussion, we’ll be able to better serve the community,” Graham said.

Students from Oberlin High School in St. Andrew board the rural school bus, which takes them from Lawrence Tavern to Glengoffe, St. Catherine (Photo: JIS)

At Spot Valley High School in St James, Principal Richard Thompson described the school bus system as a very good initiative and a marked improvement over what was in place before.

“The students are somewhat happy that they don’t have to go through the two or three different buses per day to reach school,” said Thompson.

It was a similar story from Karen Francis, principal of Westwood High School for Girls in Stewart Town, Trelawny.

She described the school bus system as a good initiative which should be continued.

Francis said the system is particularly beneficial for students whose parents are financially challenged.

Meanwhile, grade nine student at Black River High School Leshaun Johnson told the Observer that the bus service has made a noticeable difference in his daily commute.

Johnson, who previously relied on minibuses and Coaster buses serving his community, said the programme has eased the financial burden on his family while providing a calmer alternative to the public transport he once depended on.

“I like that it’s more reliable than the Coaster bus,” said Johnson as he added that he also appreciates the quieter, more orderly environment on-board.

Johnson said he hopes the service will eventually extend deeper into rural communities so that more students can benefit.

Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport Minister Daryl Vaz (right), in conversation with Superintendent of Police, Jeffery Lecky, in Papine Square on Monday, September 8, 2005, during the rollout of the National Rural School Bus Programme. JIS

Introduced at the start of the 2025-26 academic year, the initiative was designed to provide reliable transportation to students attending rural schools, reducing the burden on families while improving access to education.

Anita Rambally, JUTC’s general manager of the school bus programme, told the
Observer that the initiative has fulfilled its objective of providing quality transportation for students in rural communities.

“I would say that the programme has achieved its mandate set out by the ministry and the Government in terms of providing an affordable, safe, reliable transportation service for students of the rural areas,” said Rambally.

According to Rambally, the service has outpaced its 110-bus fleet.

“We don’t have enough buses to put on the road to transport the amount of children wanting the service. As of now, we are not meeting the demand,” declared Rambally as she recalled the negative public commentary initially that made some parents reluctant to allow their children to use the buses.

“Over time, the persons who accepted what was being presented to them as an opportunity for security, for education, for the future of Jamaica, who took the transportation service, everyone looked on and saw that the service is the safe, reliable way to go, and saw why it was so necessary,” added Rambally.

She said the increased take-up has placed pressure on some routes, with some students occasionally having to stand during their journey because of the numbers seeking to use the service.

Rambally pointed out that all 86 routes currently operating under the programme are in heavy demand, with parents, students, and school administrators making daily requests for additional buses and recommending new routes.

“When a neighbouring constituency or a neighbouring parish looks over and they see the bus over there, everybody starts to call and say, ‘Oh, I want the buses here too.’ There is that call for the buses to be everywhere. I know everyone wants the buses, so the demand for the service is very high.”

Rambally said an additional 100 buses are expected to be added to the fleet as the programme seeks to expand its reach. She added that recommendations for new routes are being assessed, with the multiple factors being considered.