By Felix Tjozongoro
WINDHOEK – Since children and young people are the most at risk of road accidents, the Ministry of Transport is considering offering road safety training to primary schools, starting with grades 1 to 3 next year.
Deputy Minister of Transport, Kilus Nguvauva speaking when he met with Minister of Education, Dr David Namwandi, promised to bring on board the upper primary school levels by 2016.
Nguvauva explained that the training of pre-teens on road safety would help create enlightened drivers.
“It is our hope that the cross-curricular integration of Road Safety Education into the National School Curriculum would really help Namibia in providing long-term solutions to current road safety problems, especially the behavioural aspects,” said Nguvauva.
Nguvauva noted that in Namibia, more than 600 lives are lost in fatal accidents annually, whilst most of those who die on the roads are between the ages of 18 and 35 years.
With the introduction of the road safety subject in schools, it is hoped that young learners will be armed with information to be better future road users.
Global research shows that children, who start learning about the road system from a very early age, demonstrate safer behaviour in later life. Road safety education plays an important role in shaping the attitudes and behaviour of children and young people, ensuring they become responsible drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists, researchers say.
Before they become adults, children at some point need to have learnt and mastered appropriate road safety skills, because without them, they are not likely to spontaneously understand traffic and know how to proceed safely.
The National Road Safety Council (NRSC) started in 2009 pushing for the integration of road safety into the Namibian national school curriculum for basic education. The National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) advised back then for the NRSC to undertake a gap analysis, which would lead to a cross-curricular integration.
Cross-curricular integration means that the teaching of road safety will be done through topics in other subjects such as Social Studies and Mathematics. Cross-curricular teaching also involves a conscious effort to apply knowledge, principles, and values to more than one academic discipline simultaneously.
Speaking at the event, Namwandi noted the challenges classroom-based road safety education had encountered in trying to change the behaviour of road users.
“The introduction of Road Safety Education in the National school curriculum is a step in right direction, as it is intended to teach students, from a tender age, the basic tenets of responsible road usage.
“If these lessons are properly taught and sustained throughout the school career, I have no doubt that come 2031, (17 years from now) we will start to see responsible drivers on our roads when those who will be introduced to the road safety education will be allowed to obtain their driving licences,” said Namwandi.
In terms of the different basic education phases, the junior primary phase will deal with passenger and pedestrian safety, safe places to play as well as cycling.
Part of the training activities will include exploring the traffic environment to allow learners to gain important practical experience. The training will also engage parents to teach their children how to become safer road users.
“Apart from the teaching materials, we have delivered training to school management, heads of departments, and the teachers for the specific grades across the country in terms of implementing the integration of road safety education,” said project leader of the NRSC, Ambrosius Tierspoor.