NPTAJ optimistic about rural school buses, primary literacy programme

 

President of the National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ), Stewart Jacobs, says he is pleased with Monday's rollout of the rural school bus service after three years of advocacy. 

 

Mr. Jacobs has applauded the government for keeping its promise to provide safe, affordable and reliable transportation for students in rural areas.

 

He has also expressed satisfaction with the measures in place to ensure the safety of children after it was revealed on Monday that action will be taken against a driver who committed 14 as speeding violations.

 

"We are very happy for it. One, it is a safe way of taking our children to and from school. It guarantees that drivers like that [are] caught very quickly because the bus has a speed recorder in it, like a speed governor. It also has a monitor on it, an adult monitor and it has a monitor over the driver. So it's a very safe way, and it's affordable, and it certainly will have our parents paying less," he noted while speaking Tuesday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106.

 

Transport Minister Daryl Vaz said the government is committed to ensuring the highest standards are maintained under the Rural School Bus System.

 

Some 60 units were deployed on Monday in Phase 1 of the programme. 

 

 

Meanwhile, with several initiatives to be implemented by the Ministry of Education during this academic year, Mr. Jacobs said he is especially anticipating the rewards from the renewed focus on literacy at the primary level. 

 

The ministry has said the literacy programme, which targets students in grades 1 to 3, will be one of its key priorities. 

 

"The new literacy focus from grade 1 to 3, we'll be happy for that because it almost guarantees that a child would not go into grade 7 in a couple years' time unable to read and write. When we speak about literacy, we have to be kind of not too focused on matriculation and literacy, but literacy also means the child making sense in this world, what they understand what is happening around them. Because a lot of times we always think that it's good to have a child read and write, and that the child is bright, but not able to fit into, function into society. And so that's something that we're very keen on," he explained.

 

Mr. Jacobs was a guest Tuesday on TVJ's Smile Jamaica. 

 

The Education Ministry has said it will also ramp up intervention programmes in underperforming schools.