Without a formal school bus system students in rural Jamaica, like these in Portland, rely on taxis to get to and from school (Photo: Everard Owen)
March 18, 2025
#BudgetDebate2025: Golding says 50,000 rural students would benefit from RIDE under PNP Gov’t
If it returns to Government, a People’s National Party (PNP) administration would roll out a transportation subsidy for students in areas not served by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC).
This was stated Tuesday by Opposition Leader and PNP President, Mark Golding, during his contribution to the 2025/26 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives.
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Noting that the JUTC has provided subsidised fares for children and the elderly since it commenced operation under a PNP administration in the late 1990s, Golding said “our Rural Initiative for Delivering Education (RIDE) programme will assist rural students with their weekly public transportation costs”.
“Children in Westmoreland and St Elizabeth; students from Manchester and Clarendon; young people from Portland and St Ann… from all across the island in rural parishes will benefit. We need to give the next generation a better chance. We are championing change,” Golding declared.
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He said the RIDE programme will run in tandem with the Ensuring Adequate Sustenance for Education (EASE) programme announced by Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Julian Robinson, during his contribution to the Budget Debate last Thursday. That programme would provide a daily lunch meal at the primary and secondary level for all needy children.
“We commit to extending this daily to breakfast, thereafter,” Golding said.
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Noting that some 7,500 students on the PATH programme in rural Jamaica currently benefit from a rural transportation programme, Golding said the RIDE programme would extend this to 50,000 students over three years.
