York Castle High students take driver’s licence test

In a move that is expected to impact the future of road safety in Jamaica, 37 York Castle High School students sat the written test to qualify for a provisional (learner’s) driver’s licence at the school last Friday – 36 of them passed the test.

Having a provisional driver’s licence is a necessary first step to being granted a driver’s permit in Jamaica. A person has to reach the age of 17 to be granted a provisional driver’s licence.

The move, which saw the students being taught from a curriculum developed by the school with the assistance of HEART/NSTA Trust, was hailed by Education Minister Fayval Williams and Transport Minister Audley Shaw who suggested that it spells the end of the ‘buy a licence’ culture in Jamaica.

The move that resulted in the tests on Friday, which Dontae Matthews, education and information officer, road safety unit, described as ‘ground-breaking’, had its genesis in 2012 when teachers from the Industrial Arts Department started a drivers club which prepared students to sit the driver’s test. Several students would have passed the examination, after sitting them at the examination depot.

Principal, Raymon Treasure, told The Gleaner that driver education was something that all students at some point would want to engage in and after doing it informally decided to roll it out to grade nine students in 2014 and by 2016 to the CAPE students.

FIRST TIME

“This year is the first time we are going to do the driver education test as a school and this would have come about because we entered into a partnership with the Island Traffic Authority and they came onboard with a lot of enthusiasm and allowed us basically to sit the exams here at York Castle and the hope is that after six months the students will be sitting the real exam to leave York Castle High School with their driver’s licence,” Treasure said.

“The hope is that in the future all sixth-form students will leave York Castle High School with a driver’s licence because we believe it is a critical skill that all citizens should be exposed to,” he added.

Noel Carpenter, motor vehicle examiner based at the St Ann’s Bay depot, who oversaw the test, was impressed with the results, noting that 36 of the 37 students who sat the test passed, with one student even finishing in 14 minutes.

Member of Parliament for St Ann North Western, Krystal Lee, has committed to paying the fees for all the students to sit the test.

EXCITED

Kaleigh Dyce-Sharma, one of the students who sat the test, said she was excited by the prospect of getting her driver’s licence by the time she leaves school.

“It was a little bit tedious,” she said of the test. “The questions that I practised, some of then returned, but there were new questions. But I’m confident that I passed.”

Demario Cross, who is the public relations officer for the Driver’s Club at York Castle said he was pleased to be able to get his provisional driver’s licence this early.

“I’m quite happy because my father keeps telling me, ‘go and get your driver’s licence because I don’t want to keep driving you around,’” he disclosed.

Meanwhile, Matthews pointed out that under the new Road Traffic Act, a road code test must be taken before acquiring the learner’s permit, and, as such, he was pleased that Treasure had reached out to the ITA.

“We are proud of the fact that a school is able to instil not only the usual (subjects), but other skills that are useful in life,” he remarked. He said he is hoping to roll out the programme in other schools.

Treasure in the meantime hopes to get help in acquiring three motor vehicles and a driving simulator to teach the students, as currently the students are taught using vehicles of staff members.