The Rural School Bus Programme, implemented last year, continues to be one of the Government’s most impactful investments, delivering safe, reliable transportation for students.
Highlighting the programme’s impact during Wednesday’s (July 15) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Minister of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications, Hon. Daryl Vaz, said parent and student satisfaction currently stands at 100 per cent, significantly surpassing the original performance target of 85 per cent.
He noted, too, that school attendance among participating communities have improved by 95 per cent, while public support continues to grow.
“This initiative has become a model of effective public policy, improving educational access, reducing transportation costs for families and strengthening rural communities and ensuring that every child has a safe, reliable, dignified journey to school,” he said
Minister Vaz pointed out that since its launch in September 2025, the programme has evolved into one of Jamaica’s most successful public transportation initiatives addressing long-standing challenges of affordability, accessibility, and student safety.
The Minister said the programme’s first-year performance demonstrates exceptional success with approximately 349 schools benefiting, 86 dedicated bus routes, approximately 90 buses dispatched daily, more than 16,000 trips facilitated every day and approximately 8,000 students transported safely to and from school.
“Operational performance has also been outstanding. Each month, the fleet travels more than 228,000 kilometres, consuming approximately 77,700 litres of fuel, while maintaining scheduled maintenance compliance, 100 per cent GPS monitoring compliance, 100 per cent driver training compliance and approximately 90 trained professional drivers operating daily,” he said.
He pointed out, as well, that since the programme’s launch, there has been no incidents involving serious injury or loss of life to students using the service.
“These are purpose-built buses and not just ordinary bus, so they are built with a protection mechanism for safety for these children,” he noted.
Additionally, he said discussions are being undertaken with the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service regarding implementation of phase two of the initiative.
“We are now moving into phase two of rural school bus. We had intended to do another 100 buses for this financial year. We are still in discussions with the Ministry of Finance based on budgetary constraints, based on [Hurricane] Melissa, but I know that it is a priority for the Cabinet, and I know it’s a priority for all my colleague Ministers and Members of Parliament on both sides of the House,” he said.
