Wed | Dec 17, 2025

Tender launched for second phase of Rural School Bus System

Published:Friday | November 7, 2025 | 4:02 PM
Daryl Vaz, Minister of Transport sprinkles rum during a blessing ceremony on August 27 for the first set of school buses under the National Rural School Bus Programme.
Rudolph Brown
Daryl Vaz, Minister of Transport sprinkles rum during a blessing ceremony on August 27 for the first set of school buses under the National Rural School Bus Programme.

The Ministry of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications has officially launched Phase 2 of the Rural School Bus System with a tender for 150 school buses—while blasting private operators in the process.

The tender, published this week, confirms Transport Minister Daryl Vaz’s earlier reported statement that the process would begin before the end of November.

According to the Ministry, the buses will be used exclusively for transporting schoolchildren across Jamaica as part of the National School Transportation System (NSTS), a flagship programme aimed at improving safety, reliability, and affordability in student mobility.

Entities seeking to supply the Government must submit bids by November 14.

The ministry said the goal is to ensure that the next fleet meets operational demands while enhancing student safety and reducing dependence on unregulated public transport. It emphasised that the NSTS responds to long-standing challenges of unprofessional private providers on rural roads.

“For years, the Ministry has been grappling with the issue of getting children to school on time, safely and efficiently and affordably,” stated the tender. “This has become more poignant with the number of accidents, claiming the lives of or seriously injuring many students, the increase in abuse of students on the mostly unregulated public transportations and their disappearance resulting from the lateness of the time they are out and the source of transportation they are forced to utilise.

The shortage of adequate transportation has also resulted in overloading of the available transports, extremely long waiting times, and tremendous inconvenience for these students.”

The Ministry called the implementation of a National School Transportation System (NSTS) a priority programme of the Government. Minister Vaz previously noted that the first set of buses—acquired under tight timelines for the start of the 2025/26 academic year—were sourced from North America.

- Steven Jackson

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