Road Safety Education for Schools
We provide resources, create awareness campaigns and platforms to help kindergartens, primary children and secondary students stay safe on these deadly roads. Teaching children road safety in an age-appropriate way is so important for their development. This helps shape their attitude to road safety and how they behave as they grow and progress through the various stages of being a road user.
The resources we offer, are tailored road safety resources to engage kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and their pupils/students, parents plus the surrounding community.
What is the problem?
One of the most frequently expressed road safety concerns is that of the safety of children outside schools. The pupils/students walking or cycling to schools, those at drop-off and pick-up times, the roads in the immediate vicinity of schools are especially busy and there is usually a high level of vehicle, pedestrian, and cyclist activity that poses a challenge to the safety of children. We’ve received countless reports about hit and run incidences of children and some occurring right at the zebra crossings in front of the schools.
The majority of the schools are day and located by the roadside, most of the children walk or cycle to and from schools, the few using motorized means (vans, taxis or motorcycles) don’t actually use child restraint systems (CRS), helmets or seatbelts; the use of motorcycles (bodaboda) specifically carrying 5 children; the school zones aren’t safe as they should be – with limited speed restrictions and signages, with minimal designated sidewalks etc.; children’s inability to judge vehicular distances while crossing the road due to distractions such as playing on the road, use of headphones, among other gadgets. Yet with all these, road safety education is still not prioritised and where mention is made, the method of delivery is not appropriate and effective enough.
Why Focus on Schools
It is timely to foster good road safety attitudes and behaviour among young people since;
- They are impressionable, flexible and open to changing their behaviour.
- Younger children look up to the older ones as role models.
- At their age they may be thinking about becoming drivers and will need to learn and practice good road safety behaviour and show respect to all road users.
- Pupils/Students learn the practical skills and attitude needed to keep themselves and others safe on the roads in their everyday lives as pedestrians, cyclists, passengers or drivers.
- It empowers students to become responsible and safe road users.
Road Safety Clubs
Our School Road Safety Clubs (SRSC) are unique and not like any other clubs in schools, it is a life experience club, touching the lives of thousands of young people who are vulnerable on the roads. The School Road Safety Club does not only offer a long and sustainable way of communicating repeated message to young children from pre -school to adulthood and beyond, but also acts as a platform for young people to promote peer to peer education on the importance of observing road safety rules (especially good pedestrian behavior) hence meaningful participation. Children travel to and from school by walking or cycling, by taxis, bodaboda, school bus or in private vehicles.
SRSC is aimed at helping children understand fundamentals of road safety, simulating complex road situations where children recreate their school’s surrounding area. Secondly, inculcates road safety culture as contained in the Highway Code and other relevant road safety books and journals, films etc. Furthermore, assists in propagating road safety ideas and ethics in the youths, serve as veritable tool in catching the young people to become road users in the future.
SRSC activities range from rallies, debate competition, quiz competition, poems, TVs and radio talk shows, to community sensitization and public awareness among others. The clubs are established in primary and secondary schools to serve as veritable tool in catching youngsters to become responsible road users in the future. The end point is making these youngsters road safety ambassadors in their homes, among peers, in schools and wherever they find themselves.
LRSI oversees the activities of these clubs, and coordinates with Ministry of Works and Transport, Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Uganda Police Force and other stakeholders.
Meet some of our SRSCs;
Bat Valley primary school Road Safety Club
Wandegeya muslims primary school road safety club
Kampala high school Road Safety Club
Old Kampala Senior Secondary School Road Safety Club
Ahmadiyyah muslims high school Road Safety Club
Road Safety Club Resources
Road Safety Club Manual
Introduction
The traffic safety of children is a major problem in most countries. In order to reduce the large number of fatalities and injuries of children, several crash and injury prevention measures are used such as; separating children from dangerous traffic environment, making grown-ups realize that children are children and that they can never be made responsible for their behavior in traffic and, a more traditional method to teach children how to behave safely in traffic.
These measures, have not yielded much effort, children continue to die on our roads in big numbers. This manual is design to enable School Road Safety Club (SRSC) function effectively irrespective of levels of learners. The concept of SRSC is to “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov: 22:6). This is about mind set change. The manual is designed for both primary and secondary schools.
School Traffic Safety Handbook
Introduction
As an important part of the community, schools have a vital role in helping students to stay safe – and that includes on their journeys to and from school. Having a School Traffic Safety Manual goes a long way to achieving this.
School road safety manual is intended to provide an invaluable service for school children safety within and around schools. It’s a significant responsibility that requires an equally significant commitment, but it pays enormous dividends for the school children, their parents, guardians and the community as a whole.
This Manual is designed by LRSI, an NGO passionate about safety of young people. To promote and provide information about children’ safety to and from schools.
About This Manual
This manual is designed for use in conjunction with the LRSI training manual. It’s also useful for monitoring and evaluating school traffic safety team, reporting to senior staff and the board on the effectiveness of the safety team, and for planning student activities focused on safety. It should complement National Road Safety Policy, and fit with other school policies and child safety initiatives such as walking, cycling, school vans/buses and school travel plans.
