Students are not getting full mileage out of a programme set up to teach them road safety riding skills.

The Royal Gazette has learned that half a dozen cycles which the Education Department purchased for the Project Ride programme at the beginning of the school year are rusting at the Police compound at Prospect.

And each cycle has only travelled about five miles.

Road Safety and some education officials were tightlipped about the matter when contacted this week.

Road Safety Council chairman George Morton Jr. referred inquiries to Road Safety Officer Delcina Bean-Burrows and Project Ride co-ordinator Dennis Glasford.

When contacted Mr. Glasford said: "You should talk to someone from the Department of Education. I just get the thing up and going. The bike storage and other issues are up to the Education Department and Police.'' Transport Control Department director Donald Dane expressed his frustration with the Education Department's handling of the programme. He said he did not know why the cycles were not being used.

He noted that TCD in October had qualified nine driving instructors in public high schools to teach the programme which comes under the Education Department.

"We qualify the driving instructors and after they are trained -- which is a 12-hour course including eight hours of practical -- they are tested,'' he explained. "Project Ride instructors are ready to go the week after they are qualified. It is up to the Department of Education and principals.'' In order to successfully complete the Project Ride programme, students complete a theory test on basic rules of the road and cycle maintenance. And they must pass a practical test involving five skills -- a cone weave or test of balance and control, a left turn, a right turn, an emergency stop and overtaking a hazard.

Mr. Dane said some students were still wasting school hours at TCD by waiting to be tested there.

"We have qualified them (driving instructors in schools) so we don't have to have children wasting time in the morning down here,'' he said. "We have children coming down here without an appointment. We have to take care of them in between scheduled appointments by the public.

Project Ride motorbikes not being used "Some students are spending half a day here. I'm finding it very frustrating.

Project Ride should be used at the schools. The teachers are ready. It is not the fault of the teachers.'' Chief Education Officer Joseph Christopher acknowledged that teachers had been trained in October and he said the Project Ride programme had begun in some high schools.

"But they are still doing the theory,'' he said. "They will then do the practical. There should be much more use of the cycles) once students take the practical.'' Dr. Christopher also pointed out that the cycles were at Police Headquarters at Prospect because school officials were still trying to find a secure location for them. "We don't want them stolen,'' he said.

Sandys Secondary will store the Project Ride cycles they use at Somerset Police Station, he added.

And Cedarbridge Academy is also expected to have a secure area for the cycles when it opens in September.

The Department planned to have Project Ride at both Cedarbridge and the Berkeley Institute under the restructured public school system.

Shadow Transport Minister Dennis Lister, who plans to bring up the issue during the Budget debate on March 7, said the Progressive Labour Party believed driver's education should be mandatory in existing high schools.

"When we changed the legislation on testing first-time riders I was opposed to it because we feel that driver's education should be part of the curriculum in the schools,'' he said. "With a population in Bermuda where just about everybody rides at age 16, driver's education should be mandatory.''