3.1 Road Safety in the curriculum

Road Safety is too important and complex to be dealt with by simple messages given a few times a year .Experience from various countries has shown repeatedly one-off talks by visiting speakers(eg.,police or other well meaning groups)are not particularly effective unless they are part of ongoing work in the school through a structured program of RSE.
It is essential for long-term prospects of road safety education in schoolsthat there is adequate provision in the national curriculum.This is the building block on which further traffic education is based.
Without this,there will be only ad hoc activity with little control of content.By specifying what should be taught to each age group ,some control over content and quality will be achieved.The curriculum content must of course be well-defined,based on sound educational principles and should reflect local needs and accident problems.

Road safety is an area of work that fits naturally into many topics and centres of interest already going on in schools.It can provide a vehicle for basic skills of literacy and numeracy as well as being a topic in its own right,for example,within life skills,social studies,or health education.

Where possible,specific road safety lessons can be included in the school timetable,but it should also be incorporated into other subjects throughout the year.
In addition to being appropriate for the age group,road safety lesson content should also be relevant to local conditions,include practical road side training,and be reinforced on a regular basis.There is often atendency to over emphasize the teaching of road signs and traffic lights equates to road safety.

There should be more emphasis on teaching survival skills in progressive manner taht is appropriate to each age group.Rather than rigid rules that may not be applicable in a new situation they come across,children need to be taught concepts for survival.For example,teaching children that must cross the road at traffic lights may cause confusion if the lights are not working properly ,or if there are none in the locality.It is preferable to teach rules and principle for crossing the road that can be applied equally to traffic light controlled junctions,marked pedestrian crossings,rural roads,or other situations.

Like other measures aimed at increasing road safety in our country,actual problems should be identified and specific age groups targeted,based on accident data.For example,if there is an accident problem involving 10-12 yers ols crossing roads,this should be highlighted in the curriculum.

It has been shown that it may be more effective to teach children the skills needed to cross a specific road by practicle training;i.e.,to concentrate on behavior.

As they grow,older children will be able to generalize specifc situations and actions to other sitations.There is evidence that practical training is the most effective means of improving young children's skills and judgements and therefore,they will learn about road safety best by being exposed to real traffic situations in a controlled,safe manner.However,classroom-based RSE can help,for the following reasons:

1)without effective classroom work,children may not give sufficient attention or priority to the dangers of road use:and

2)without effective classroom work,children may not learn the vocabulary of the road,may not have concepts such as car stopping distances explained to them,and may not understand exactly how they are in danger or putting others in danger.

However,classroom work alone will not improve critical skills such as road crossing.Supervised practise in the traffic situation is much more effective and should be carried out as close to the age as psssible when children in the community start using the roads on their own.

Many countries have trafic parks but rarely do the conditions inside the parks refelct the conditions on real roads that children have to cross in that country.

There is a little point in teaching children in the park on roads with well maintained foootpaths and a well-marked,well-signposted road network if these do not exist in their local environment.It is more effective to teach children on real,local roads under proper adult supervision.Groups should be small,with a high ratio of adults to children to ensure safety.Classroom and practical lessons need to be given on a regular basis to reinforce safe road use behavior in children.Road safety eduation should be incorporated into the national curriculum with lessons
conducted on regular basis.
(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)