Road safety is an issue of universal concern, affecting everyone irrespective of their age. Many road crashes continue
to occur due to the violation of traffic rules, which shows that the person behind the wheel is making errors that results
in crashes. Therefore, it is not merely enough for people to just learn to drive, but also to become responsible road users.
Over-speeding has constantly been the leading cause of road crashes for the past few years. According to the Ministry
of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) ‘over speeding’ accounted for 71.2% of total fatalities during the year 2022,
causing 72.3% of the accidents, followed by driving at the roadside at 5.4% in 2022. T he majority of the people who died
in road accidents in India were between the ages 18 and 45 which means that many people belonging to the most
productive age group lost their lives in the road crashes.
Road Safety Education
Road safety education is viewed as an efficient way of avoiding road crashes among young road users, ranging from pedestrians and bicyclists to adolescent novice drivers. Students spend three-fourths of their time in an educational institution, be it school, college, or university, it is important to make road safety as a part of their
curriculum.
To inculcate road safety at the school level, it is important to design a curriculum with an age-wise module with the right pedagogy to prepare the children as responsible road users. The app-based, story-based, gamification, and practical teaching techniques can be introduced in the curriculum. Road Safety education shall be included in the curriculum of all the classes irrespective of the board and the State.
Workshop on Standardising and Strengthening Road Safety Curriculum
Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS), IIT Madras organised a virtual workshop with all the Stakeholders on December 16, 2022, to understand the need for the curriculum. This workshop was the first step to take the primary and secondary level of road safety education forward with stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, School Education Board of the States, and Education Department of the States. It was seen that a good curriculum and pedagogy is the current requirement. Following the workshop, the states and UTs were asked to share their existing curriculum on Road Safety. Based on the response of the states and UTs, it was learned that there is no curriculum in implementation covering all the primary and secondary classes of the school. Also, the practical preparedness of the children as future road users is missing. (Read more)
Right Curriculum, Pedagogy and Practical Approach Towards Road Safety Education
With the right curriculum, it is important to have the right pedagogy. A practical approach to learning Road Safety is important to prepare the children to become responsible road users. We can learn from the international best practices; Countries like Japan have made road safety education mandatory in all schools, and they also have Japanese Driving Schools and Traffic parks for children, for a practical approach. Moreover, Traffic parks for children are designed with visual materials Traffic Park in Japan including movable traffic lights and signage.
Age-appropriate Curriculum and Pedagogy on Road Safety from Kindergarten to 12th
To keep road safety education as a ubiquitous thought in the minds of children, it is important to introduce
activity-based learning, that can be practiced regularly without increasing the burden of school curriculum content. In
line with the New Education Policy (NEP) goals of India, we have developed an age-appropriate activity-based content
outline and pedagogy from kindergarten to 12th standard.