4 Stages of development

The development of an effective road safety education program in a developing country will most probably involve the country proceeding through a number of stages.The major steps are typically as follows:

1)review of current practices and responsibilities for RSE.RSE provided by schools,police,or service groups should be assessed in light of accident data and recent trends to identify priority areas and opportunities for improvement;

2)short -term and immediate improvements to the current system identified and introduced.To enable RSE to continue in more effective form while more substantial programs are set up,short-term improvements to the existing system should be undertaken.For example,if police team visit school to givetalks on road safety they can increase effectiveness by basic training,content review,and production of worksheets that can be left at the school outings with practical road safety lessons incorporated:

3)introduce RSE pilot project.Areas where road accidents are a serious problem should be targeted first.Local expertise should be developed.Villages near rehabilitated roads are an ideal candidate as the accident risk is increasing.Aid-funded projects are beginning to fund local RSE programs in order to prepare road side communities for expected increases in vehicle speeds and traffic volumes.Local reference material should be produced and may require preliminary road safety awareness seminars offered by an RSE specialist;

4)develop RSE school curriculum contentTo ensure relevant skills are taught to each group in a structured way,RSE policy and plans should be drawn up to improve provision in a sensible and organized manner and to identify priority areas in the country.Clearly defined responsibility for RSE and goood coordination between providers is necessary;

5)produce basic classroom materials and teacher's guides.It is important to ensure relevance of materials to the local situation and to accident problems identified.Teachers' guides and materials should be pilot tested before final production.When a teachers' guide is available,ideally all current and new teachers should have their own copy;

6)improve teacher training.Development and inclusion of road safety in initial teacher training through colleges and continuing professional development.This should include the abilities of different aged children,implications for their behavior on the roads,how to teach safety effectively,how road safety issues can be incorporated into current current school topics,and an introduction to available teaching materials;

7)introduce community education initiativesTo ensure road safety messages reach children who are unable to attend school on a regular basis and to educate parents and older generations,communiti education programs should include RSE.(Once schools are all teaching road safety,RSE can be expanded to involve NGOs for supplemental support).

(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)

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3.6 Policy Coordination

Lack of awareness by policymakers of the need for RSE can be an impediment in improving this sector.It is often the case that there is ad hoc road safety education already taking place.A national road safety council(NRSC),or similar body has a vital role to play in coordinating road safety nationally,to increase efficiency and prevent duplication of effort.This is especially important when there are limited resources available in this sector.

Many government and nongovernment organizations(NGO)can play a role in RSE.Obviously,the ministry of education is an important player,but also ministries of health,police,etc.,can play a part.Highlighting of accident problems,and even a network national accident database,and even a national accient database,can help to direct activity in all organizations towards the same target.

For the development of road safety within a country,it is essential that information,ideas,and examples of good practice are disseminated among professionals working in the field.At the very least,if there is no NRSC in place,this could be done within the appropriate ministry.Information could be shared by:

1) regular meetings or seminars;
2) a newsletter;
3) membership of overseas road safety organization to keep abreast of current international advances;and
4) training-external and in-house.

In some countries,the private sector(e.g.,banks,insurance companies,manufactures,and distributors)are willing to invest in road safety as part of their corporate responsibility and/or marketing and public relations,strategies.The association of insurance companies in India has funded development of road safety education materials.Businesses may be willing to finance publication costs in return for sponsorship credit or company logos printed on the publications.
Although it is generally recommended that there should be an increase in road safety tution through schools,police teams already in existence in many countries do have a role in supplementing this,and supporting topic work.However,one problem that the officers face is that they are unlikely to stay in one section of the police for a long period.
Valuable resources are lost by training officers for this specific role and then losing their expertise.Consideration should perhaps be given to road safety being a career position within the police.

(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)

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3.5 Community Education

Once formal education practices are established,it is necessary to turn attention towards nonformal education methods to bring road safety education to children who do not regularly attend school,especially in high risk areas.
There are various options available.One community-based program that it may be possible to use is Child -to -child,which has been developed and used in many counties around the world.The basis of the program is that children attending school are taught about various health and social problems,and how to deal with them.This includes such issues as water,maleria,AIDS,and an element of road safety.The children are encouraged to disseminate the information to younger children and their parents,and to take practical action in their communities to improve their own chances of survival.Many of the materials are available in different languages.

Other community groups that can help in getting the road safety message across include the Scouts and Guides and women's group (e.g, literacy or health programs)to teach parents how to teach their children to be safe.

Community education should also be used to emphasize lifelong learning and to build links between home,community,and school.

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3.4 Teaching Aids

Research from other countries has shown that it is important taht effecive road safety education does not rely simply on talks by visiting speakers at irregular intervals.Talks can supplement ongoing,curricular-based class room work,but are arguably more effective if supported by teaching resources.Some countries have found it beneficial to establish specialist road safety officers to assist and support teachers-by providing ideas,resources,and teaching materials.Materials for use in the classroom can include,but are not lmited,to the following:
1) worksheets;
2) posters;
3) teaching pack;
4) slides;
5) books and games; and
6) videos.

The most basic of these to produce are the worksheets,which are cheap and therefore easy to reproduce.These should concentrate on vocabulary development for young children and then move onto crossing skills and more complex issues as the children"s ages increase.

Inittially,resource can be adapted from those of other countries,an approach that minimizes development costs and time implications,but eventually local resources-teaching packs,worksheets,videos,and posters-should be produced.There should always be the option for adapting resources for local needs,as materials that are appropriate in one area of a country may not be as relevant else where and vice versa.It is also useful to have good quality resources that can be used immediately while a comprehensive curriculum is developed.Approaches used in other teaching areas can be used for road safety.For example,if puppet shows are popular among children,they can be used as an effective carrier for road safety messages.In some countris,including Malaysia,computer-based learning is popular with secondry students.
.(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)

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3.3 Teacher Training

Teacher training should be of existing teachers,through a series of local seminars,and of new teachers entering the profession,through the teacher training colleges.To train all teachers in basic road safety teaching throughout a country is alarge commitment.It is unlikely to be achievable unless a dedicated person is apponted to this task,full time,for at least two years.Their role should be primarily to train trainers to run road safetyseminaars,for head teachers initially,but then covering all class teachers.They could also be involved in resource development to gradually build up the road safety materials available in a country.
In a longer term,it will be necessary to include a road safety element in initial teacher training courses to ensure that teachers coming into the profession are fully equipped to teach road safety to their students.

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3.2 Teachers ' Guide

Once there is adequate provision in the curriculum,it is necessary to give teachers the correct information to be able to teach road safety effectively.By producing ateachers'guide,and distributing it to schools,the ability of teachers to teach road safety will be increased substantially.In countries where the majority of primary school age children do attend school,it is appropriate to concentrate initially on increasing and impoving the road safety education through the schools,before considering options for non formal education.

Production and dissemination of a full teachers"guide will facilitate the process of encouraging road safety teaching in schools and will give teachers a permanent remnder and source of reference in the classroom.The guide should enable teachers to teach the concepts included in the core curriculum and ideally should be produced in a large enough quantity for every primary school teacher to have a personal copy.

(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)

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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)

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WHY IS ROAD SAFETY EDUCATION(RSE)NEEDED

Children in many motorized countries are more likely to die or be injured as a result of a road accident,than through any other cause.In developing countries,20 percent of traffic deaths are people under the age of 15 and threat of road accidents will increase with motorization.Several factors contribute to this risk to children in developing countries:

1)both the speed and volume of motor vehicle traffic will increase,especially on rehabilitated roads;

2)roadside friction will continue as poor land use planning,operational control,and limited road space lead to conflicting uses of road and roadsides;

3)road improvements tend to focus on motor vehicle requirements and not pedestrian needs;

4)traffic police can offer only limited help as they are poorly equipped to control motor vehicle traffic and not properly trained to consider pedestrian needs;and

5)most parents are unable to provide road safety training as they themselves never received any training and even if they did,traffic conditions have changed dramatically since their childhood.

RSE is needed to provide the necessary structure for the acquisition of safety knowledge and skills.These include decision making skills,and the identification and assessment of risk and strategies to reduce these risks.RSE attempts to prepare children for different tasks at each stage of their increasingly independent use of the road network and,later,as adults.(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)

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