Phase Two Rollout of Rural School Bus Programme Set for September

Phase two of the Government’s Rural School Bus Programme will be rolled out in time for the start of the 2025/26 academic year in September.

The initiative, now in its first phase in St. Thomas, St. Catherine, and Clarendon, aims to ease challenges faced by rural students and enhance their safety during daily commutes.

“The continued rollout… will see dedicated school buses being provided to approximately 258 of the over 850 rural schools, which is just about 30 per cent of the total rural population. A drop in the bucket really, but we are on a mission,” Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, Hon. Daryl Vaz, said.

He was making his contribution to the 2025/26 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (May 20).

Phase two will involve the deployment of 100 fully refurbished buses, retrofitted for enhanced safety, across various parishes.

Sixty buses will be dispatched in September 2025, with another 40 set for January 2026.

Mr. Vaz said the buses provided will be exclusively for students and will not accommodate other passengers.

He emphasised that the Government is not competing with rural taxi operators but is, instead, focused on making student transportation easier, safer and more secure.

“Therefore, it is not a threat to the economic livelihood of transport operators. This will provide safe, efficient, convenient and hassle-free payment for students. Their well-being is no competition; we simply must safeguard our future,” the Minister stated.

Meanwhile, Mr. Vaz informed that the school buses will be outfitted with a driver monitoring systems camera.

He explained that the system will enable driver monitoring via infrared and utilise geofencing, which provides alerts if buses deviate from their assigned routes.

The buses will feature speed control to monitor their velocity, with alerts triggered if they exceed the designated threshold.

Additionally, a seamless parental control system will grant parents access to a user-friendly portal via an app, providing bus schedules, routes and real-time tracking.

This will enable parents to plan and monitor their children’s transportation to and from school effectively.

Minister Vaz further stated that the buses will be equipped with attendance tracking to monitor student presence, maintain accurate records for accountability, and ensure no student is left behind or misplaced during transit.