31 students at Titchfield High School sit road code test

Thirty-one students at the Titchfield High School in Portland are on their way to becoming safe road users, following the launch of the Learner Driver Education Programme at the school by the Island Traffic Authority (ITA).

Through the initiative, the students have sat the road code test to determine if they will obtain learner’s permits, in a bid to eventually obtain their driver’s licences.

Speaking at the launch of the programme on February, Director General at the ITA, Colonel Daniel Pryce, said that Titchfield High marks the first school in Eastern Jamaica to benefit from the programme.

He also underscored the importance of educating young drivers.

“Over the past five years, young people aged 15 to 35 years have accounted for 924 of Jamaica's total road fatalities with 19 of those lives being lost right here… in this lush parish of Portland,” he said.

Pryce stated that the Learner Driver Education Programme “sends a clear message to every young Jamaican that your life matters… your decisions matter [and] your vigilance on the road can save lives, possibly your own”.

"You are the generation that will inherit Jamaica's roads. You will drive our cars and our buses. You'll operate our trucks and our motorcycles. You will walk on our sidewalks and cross our roadways,” the Director General stressed.

According to Pryce, a learner’s permit is a “controlled privilege” designed to protect the holder and other road users.

He further reaffirmed the ITA’s commitment to continued partnership with the education sector to “shape young minds and promote safe road use”.

In an interview with JIS News, Communications Manager at the ITA, Dontae Matthews, explained that the Learner Driver Education Programme targets secondary and tertiary-level students and allows the ITA to educate them on the Road Traffic Act and best practices for road safety.

“We tell them about the statistics and different topics such as road signs and markings, rights of way, cell phone use and anything that will ensure that they become safer drivers,” Matthews said.

He added that “this programme also came about as a result of increasing complaints about young people engaging in illegal driving in parts of the island where they were operating vehicles without a learner's permit [and] without a driver's licence. So, they borrow their parents’ vehicle or a friend's vehicle [and] they drive to school”.

Matthews stated that the benefits of obtaining a learner’s permit young are plenty, as “it gives you time to understand [proper road use] so that when you get your driver's licence, you have some level of experience”.

Titchfield High’s Head Boy, Kevaughn Clarke, who was instrumental in bringing the programme to the school, told JIS News that it was his acquisition of a driver’s licence at 18 years old, that made him consider his peers for the privilege.

“This idea came from the fact that the students are leaving high school and driving or getting a licence is a main goal for young people. As the Head Boy, [I wanted] my project to let it be easier for them by bringing the necessary authorities to teach them about road safety and driving, and bring them to the school,” Mr. Clarke said.

The driving education initiative at the Titchfield High School is supported by Beep Beep Driving School, which is also based in Portland.

The Learner Driver Education Programme has been an initiative of the ITA since 2023 and has been executed in 26 schools.

Some 20 of those institutions have, so far, advanced to testing for learner’s permits.

- JIS News

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