Hyderabad: Though there is demand from a cross section of people to have road safety awareness in the school syllabus for decades now, successive ruling governments have not initiated any concrete measures so far in this direction.
However, certain play schools in Hyderabad have taking the initiative in teaching kids basic road safety tips and traffic rules.
The play school managements felt that practical demonstrations of the basic road rules and teaching them the dos and don’ts by creating a model street of traffic rules to educate them would have a great impact on the minds of children.
Pushya Keerthi, a software employee, said that it is important to teach students the essentials: traffic signals, walking on zebra crossings, driving in a lane, driving on the right side of the road, driving with a helmet and seatbelt, parking etc given current traffic and road conditions.
Recently when a city-based traffic activist filed an online petition to the union human resource development ministry demanding inclusion of traffic education as a mandatory subject in the school curriculum, scores of netizens supported the plea. The petitioner, Kiran Kumar Goli, a resident of Kukatpally, said doing so would ensure that future generations would be educated in traffic discipline.
Transport minister V. Prashanth Reddy in seminar held about a couple of months ago in the city on Road Safety and Audit Improvement of Traffic Safety, said that the traffic education should be made part of the syllabi in schools and colleges.
The minister said that “By traffic education, I mean, as a citizen and as an individual in society knowing what important precautions need to be taken with regard to traffic rules. If these rules are taught at a young age, it would help society. People would also get educated by the publicity campaign through advertisements, engaging celebrities and through social media,” he added. The minister said technology has increased the speed of vehicles and it has decreased journey time and increased life risks.
