153 first-time Saipan drivers undergo training

A law signed in August 2006 resulted in at least 153 first-time drivers on Saipan undergoing a driver’s education course for up to $350 per student.

Public Law 15-25 or the Mandatory Driver Education Act of 2006 requires the completion and passage of a driver’s education course as a prerequisite for the issuance of an initial driver’s license within the CNMI.

The Instructional Support Training Services, which owns and operates the Driver Training Academy, is so far the only private entity providing the driver’s education course on Saipan since its initial business license was granted in 2007.

Richard Puhalla, ISTS-DTA owner/operator, said they have provided classroom and laboratory instruction services to 153 individuals as of February.

Of the 153 individuals, 92 students successfully completed the driver’s education course, while 31 are currently enrolled in the laboratory part of the course and 19 are enrolled in the classroom part of the course.

Ten of the students who completed the classroom training have yet to enroll in laboratory training, and one student chose not to finish the laboratory training.

“The overwhelming majority of the students do very well both in the classroom and laboratory curricula…Failure is not an option. Those few individuals who did not finish the class chose to do so for a variety of reasons,” Puhalla told Saipan Tribune.

Once these individuals pass the driver’s education course and present their certificate of completion of the course, they can sit for the Bureau of Motor Vehicles written examination and/or schedule a driving test.

It’s not known yet how many of these students who completed the course at DTA obtained a driver’s license from BMV.

Puhalla said since the government granted DTA its initial business license in January 2007, it has worked closely with BMV, “and feedback from students and parents has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Undergoing the driver’s education course at DTA costs $350, which is the classroom/laboratory instruction package. Those who want to take 30 hours of classroom instruction will only have to pay $150, while the six hours of laboratory instruction cost $200.

Puhalla has been an educator for 30 years. He is a licensed driver education instructor with teaching and administrative licenses from Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania, plus the Guam and CNMI Public School Systems.

DTA’s office is located on the sixth floor of the Marianas Business Plaza in Susupe, and may be reached at 322-2220 or 484-0910.