How road safety curriculum will reduce accidents

Migori town residents mill around the scene where a canter lost control killing eight people. [Caleb Kingwara, Standar]

Low levels of road safety awareness have contributed highly to poor road user decisions and actions leading to tragic crashes. Thus, arming road users with the right information can make our roads safer.

Poor road user behaviour contributed about 90 per cent of road traffic crashes and last year, the country recorded 21,760 crash victims of which 4,579 lost their lives.

Speeding, drink driving, lane indiscipline, driver fatigue, failure to use seatbelts are some of the known causes of crashes among motorists. The economic loss of road accidents is enormous. The impact of road crashes calls for a structured way of imparting road safety information. Road users should be empowered with road safety education to support behaviour change since enforcement of traffic rules alone, is not effective.

Although there have been efforts by different agencies and partners to provide road safety information, the target has mainly been the adult population with children receiving minimal attention. This makes ongoing plans to mainstream road safety through the education system a milestone.

Unlike other social issues such as HIV/AIDS and anti-corruption that are addressed within the school system, road safety has not been sufficiently covered, largely due to lack of a comprehensive curriculum. Early interaction with road safety information will help shape the learners' attitude and how they behave behind the wheels or as pedestrians.

In this way, our education system can play a vital role in minimising avoidable loss of lives by imparting life-saving knowledge to future adults. To deliver this, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has partnered with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to develop a school road safety curriculum, and produce necessary materials for its implementation.

During the development of the curriculum, KICD will be undertaking a situational analysis on the learner's level of road safety knowledge and skills. Thereafter, matrices will be prepared to provide a framework to guide developers on how and where to integrate child road safety content in the formal, non-formal and informal curriculum.

The initiative, supported by the European Union under the Usalama Barabarani Programme, will address awareness through practical and theoretical learning.

Through the curriculum, children will better understand the guiding principles of road safety before they can internalise traffic rules and regulations. The curriculum will cover content that will be age appropriate such that it will be easy to comprehend and apply.

Teachers will be equipped with resource materials to adequately deliver the content practically and creatively. As NTSA develops and implements the curriculum, parents and guardians will be expected to reinforce the road safety by acting as role models.

As you get behind the wheels, put on your seatbelt, stick to your lane, watch your speed, and don't drink and drive, because your child might copy your actions. The life you could be saving by adhering to road safety rules could be your own.

The writer is deputy director, corporate communication at the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA)