Vaz calls out PNP for ‘dog-hearted’ attacks on life-saving school bus programme

Everything will be "criss and curry come September morning" with the Government's new rural school bus system, Transport Minister Daryl Vaz has vowed.

"Tek dat from Daryl Vaz," he said during a mass rally of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in Half-Way Tree, St Andrew on Sunday.

Further, Vaz, who is also Member of Parliament for Portland Western, vowed that in two years there will be enough buses to serve all 850 public schools.

"I stand here tonight and give you a commitment and you know I don't put my mouth a ground and talk," the transport minister said.

The new school year is expected to start on September 8.

A total of 110 buses have been purchased by the Government at a cost of $1.4 billion for the first phase of the rural school bus programme.

They will be deployed across 122 routes to serve 258 schools.

The programme has faced strong criticisms from the main Opposition People's National Party (PNP) largely over the age of the buses, the costs incurred to acquire them and their suitability for the terrain in Jamaica.

But Vaz slammed the PNP's criticism of the programme, disclosing that 66 students have died in motor vehicle crashes since 2023. Another 775 students were also injured in crashes over the same period, he said.

"Most of them dying or injured on their way to school or on their way home and the PNP has the dog-heart to badmind a rural school bus system," he said.

Further, the transport minister charged that PNP MPs who are critical of the rural school bus system have let down their constituents.

"This is the single best thing that can happen to rural Jamaica where they have a dedicated school bus system for the children so they can stop going through the trauma and the abuse every morning to get to school and get back home," he said.

"They must pay dearly for that."

- Livern Barrett

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