Owen Speid, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), is accusing the Government of failing to capitalise on a clear chance to introduce a national school bus system when schools were reopened on June 8 for students taking Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams.
Addressing a Zoom online conference held by the JTA’s St James parish chapter on Monday, Speid said the school bus system could have been provided for teachers in a similar manner to how buses have been supplied for public-sector workers.
Similar to how they have the public-sector workers being allocated a bus, there should be a school bus system for our teachers, and I would love it to be extended right across Jamaica,” Speid told the meeting.
“Even if they implemented an experimental school bus system during the period when the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination students alone would have been out, I think that was something that the Government should have implemented, especially in a time of pandemic,” said Speid.
In 2016, the National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica called for the Government to partner with parents who operate public passenger vehicles in order to develop a national school bus system.
