First 25 Rural School Buses Arrive in Island

The first 25 of 110 buses being procured for the rural school bus system arrived at Kingston Wharves on Tuesday (June 24).

The units will facilitate the phased rollout of the system at the start of the 2025/26 academic year in September, marking a major step in the Government’s efforts to provide a safe, efficient, affordable and reliable transport option for students in rural parishes.

Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport Minister, Hon. Daryl Vaz, who oversaw the arrival of the buses, said the 110 vehicles being procured will service 100 routes and 258 of the island’s more than 850 rural schools, impacting 328,000 students.

He informed that another 36 buses are scheduled to depart New York on June 26 and arrive in Jamaica next week.

On Friday (June 27), an additional 25 buses will leave from Miami and on Friday, (July 4) the final 23 buses will depart for Jamaica.

This will complete the fleet of 110 buses – 100 for active service and 10 reserved for contingencies.

“In two more financial years, we will have a fulsome rural bus programme for all 14 parishes,” Minister Vaz said, noting that “[an estimated] 650,000 students will be able to go to school every morning in a safe, economical, efficient [way]”.

Education, Skills, Youth and Information Minister, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, in her remarks, said that the rural school bus system offers critical support to ensure positive learning outcomes for all students.

“Parents in the rural communities say how expensive it is to send their children to school every day and in some of these schools you hear about high truancy and the reason they (students) are not in school is because they cannot afford the transportation cost. Our Administration believes every child matters irrespective of where they come from,” she said.

Finance and the Public Service Minister, Hon. Fayval Williams, who attended the ceremony, said the programme represents a significant investment in the education of the nation’s youth.

“Education is the most important sector of the economy. That is what we are depending on to lift us to further heights. We need our students to be in school every school day and we know that having proper rural school bus transportation is going to enable them to be in the classrooms,” she said.

Students will pay a flat fare of $50 per trip per student on all rural school bus routes.

This will result in transport costs averaging $100 per day as against current rates of between $300 and $600.