The Hindu : Road safety rules yet to find place in school curriculum

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 09, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Road safety rules yet to find place in school curriculum

By S. Anil Radhakrishnan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 8. The decision of the Kerala State Road Safety Council to include road safety rules in the school curriculum as part of its efforts to create awareness on road safety among students in the State, remains on paper even after seven years.

The proposal was first mooted in 1996 when the late P.R. Kurup was the Transport Minister of the State. According to sources in the Road Safety Council, no effort was taken by the Transport and Education Departments to prepare the contents of the curriculum till January last year(2003), even though the State has a high accident rate.

A draft curriculum was prepared by the former Chairman of the Railway Board and Member of the Road Safety Council, M.N. Prasad, at the instance of the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, in January last year. Mr. Antony had asked Mr. Prasad to prepare the curriculum vetoing the suggestion of the then Transport Minister, K.B. Ganesh Kumar, that the department would provide the course material.

Mr. Prasad submitted the draft curriculum to the Transport Minister, R. Balakrishna Pillai, in June 2003 and the copies were forwarded to the State Transport Commissioner and the Inspector General of Police, Traffic. Incidentally, the Road Safety Council has not met after June last year.

Sources told The Hindu that the draft curriculum had not yet reached the curriculum committee that comes under the State Council for Educational Research and Training, which finally approves any curriculum in schools.

The `School children's guide to road safety' that was prepared by Mr. Prasad covers the pre-primary, lower primary, upper primary and high school classes. The rules compiled were based on the Indian Highway and British Highway codes.

"Road safety is yet to be given the required importance in the curriculum for school students," Mr. Prasad said.

The rules incorporated in the guide that is meant for students of the pre-primary, takes into account the fact that most of the roads are not safe enough for children to move around unaccompanied and other hazards such as stray dogs and cattle. The guidelines take into consideration the age group of students and each section deals with the problems that students of a particular age group might encounter on the road.

The students of the lower primary have been advised not to venture into the road unescorted till the age of seven years and till all the basic safety rules are learnt. "I have approached the officials many times. Since the Government had not taken any action, I am planning to print the rules as a booklet distribute it to school children to create awareness," Mr. Prasad said.

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