Teaching correct road behaviour

Sun, Jul 20 12:45 AM

'CATCH THEM Young' seems to be the mantra when it comes to teaching road safety rules to students. The Delhi Traffic Police and Delhi government have joined hands to teach correct road behaviour to schoolchildren and are hoping that some of the good sense is passed onto their parents in the process.

The Delhi education department has now evolved course material that will teach students, from classes VI to XII in its schools, responsible behaviour on roads - as pedestrians, co-passengers and later as motorists. But more importantly, it will tell children that it is okay to check your parents if you feel they are driving rashly or breaking traffic rules.

The course also hopes to inculcate empathy in the motorists for fellow road-users in a city where slowing down for a pedestrian is an alien concept. "Children read and hear a lot about incidents of drink driving or other accidents.

It is important to not only drive home the reasons why these accidents take place, but also ways to avoid them. We have included the module in Yuva, our school life skills programme.

The traffic police provided us with the road safety rules and we have packaged it for the consumption of students in a classroom situation," said Rina Ray, Delhi Principal Secretary (Education). The module will tackle issues from how to cross a street correctly, traffic signs, use of zebra crossings, footover bridges and subways to concern for pedestrians and ones reaction in a mishap.

"Just like a child is taught good manners, we feel traffic sense should also be ingrained right from childhood," said Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) S.N. Shrivastava. The module starts with simple lessons like always looking left and right before crossing the road, always using zebra crossing when the traffic comes to a halt and using the footpath.

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