Concerns are mounting about the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC)’s implementation of a cashless rural school bus programme, which will move the country further towards the Satanic agenda for countries to become fully digital by 2028.
According to the government’s dictate, parents will now have to sign up for their child’s bus card online. These parents will then be able to receive notifications when their child enters and exits the bus from a database synced to the Ministry of Education.
Christian women’s mentor and author, Pastor Tania Case believes that the mandating of a cashless rural bus programme appears to be more beneficial to the government than it is for citizens.
“It’s not giving me a sense that this is all about the safety and the love for our children, and our investment in them is what we’re prioritising; it’s ‘just do it my way, and my way looks like only cashless’, and it concerns me that this is heading somewhere that will put more power in the hands of our government rather than in the hands of the people,” she told the Freedom Come Rain newspaper.
Late last week, speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister of Transport Daryl Vaz issued an ultimatum: go cashless or don’t take the bus at all. “The warning has been sounded. Come February 1, students who do not have student cards will not be allowed to take the rural school buses,” he said.
The rural school bus programme has been marred in controversy since being introduced last summer. The government had paid $1.4 billion to buy and retrofit 110 buses which were blessed publicly by Vaz with the sprinkling of rum. He has often reinforced the government’s responsibility to provide a safe and reliable public transport system for rural students.
According to the JUTC, an average of 16,600 students are transported daily under the programme, yet up to late last year, less than 5000 students had completed registration for the fare payment card that will transition the buses into cashless transportation. Although the government has spent money to retrofit the used buses to make them suitable for Jamaica, it does not appear there is any intention to alter the cashless component to facilitate the use of physical money.
“I want to make it very clear that come February first, if you do not have a student card, and you have not topped up your student card, to pay the subsidised fare of fifty dollars, you will be going back to the old system of paying $300-$600 a day and going through the trauma of competing with the adults for transportation,” Vaz threatened.
Despite this warning, one mother, who did not wish to be identified, says students may still end up not taking the JUTC buses, as some parents may not be able to afford the funds to top up their children’s cards regularly.
“I don’t think it makes sense, because some parents live by the day…so how would they afford to top up the card for the week? So most students will have to take taxis which drive recklessly and love to overcharge some people so…I think most students will miss out on school a lot,” she shared.
In a social media post, the JUTC stated that parents can expect “real time notification when their children board and exit the buses”, and promised a secure integration with the Ministry of Education database. Faster boarding with a simple tap-on top-off system and a quick and easy registration process, has also been promised.
But for Shanika Johnson, this feature has not altered her view that this move towards cashlessness is part of an evil agenda, though convenient. She is adamant that tracking children is unnecessary and a breach of privacy.
“So the card that they’re bringing you [will let you know] where your child is. Who else [will] know where your child is? That is a no-no. We’re supposed to have privacy. I don’t need no-one to be monitoring them [children]. If they go on the bus they know where they are. If they are with their friends, you know where they are. That is not of God; that is the devil wanting to monitor the children,” she insisted.
Jamaicans have been pushing back against the governments efforts to transition to a cashless society. Other countries in the Caribbean have been making this transition. Barbados Minister of Transport and Works, Santia Bradshaw, recently announced plans to roll out fully cashless Transport Board buses with real-time tracking for all citizens in early 2026. If successful, Barbados would become the first Caribbean country to do so. Meanwhile, other countries, such as Kenya, UK, Netherlands and Germany, have integrated some form of contactless and cashless transport transactions into their societies.