NRSC begins distribution of road safety text books to basic schools

The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) has begun distributing Road Safety Textbooks and Teaching Manuals to Primary and Junior High Schools across the country.

The distribution of the Text Books and Teaching Manuals forms part of the Commission’s mandate to promote the teaching and learning of road safety as part of the academic curriculum in basic schools to minimize road traffic casualties involving children. Child safety is one of the most critical issues in road safety management in Ghana. Over the years, children of school going age (from 0 – 16 years) have emerged as a vulnerable road user group in road traffic crashes in Ghana considering that on the average, they constitute 23% of the total number of persons killed as pedestrians annually through road traffic crashes in Ghana. Most of the children get killed by motorists while they cross the road. As part of the NRSC’s efforts to minimize the risk and incidences associated with child deaths on the road, the Commission, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ghana Education Service (GES) have produced Road Safety Text Books and Teaching Manuals.

The content of the books have taken into account general and specific child road safety related problems in both international and local context with practical examples to promote best road user behavior on the road.

Thirty thousand (30,000) copies of the text books and twenty thousand (20,000) Teaching Manuals produced by the Commission with funding from the World Bank financed Transport Sector Project (TSP).

In all, 425 Basic and Junior High Schools strategically situated within the Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions have been targeted for the distribution exercise.

In the long term however, the Commission intends to seek additional funding in order to cover all Basic and Junior High Schools in the country.

In furtherance of this, the Commission with financial support from the European Union Commission in Ghana has already undertaken trainer of trainers workshops for teachers and School Help Education Programme Coordinators (SHEP) across the country to enable them teach the subject effectively.

The Teaching and learning of road safety in schools as a road safety countermeasure has been adopted by member countries, including Ghana, of the West African Road Safety Organization (WARSO).

In the coming years the teaching and learning of road safety will ultimately be incorporated in the academic curriculum of all basic schools in West Africa including examinable questions on road safety in the Civic Education or Social Studies examinations by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) for member countries.