Road safety may become part of school curriculum

The city government is trying to introduce road safety as a subject in school curriculum to make youngsters aware of the traffic rules at an impressionable age, said Delhi education minister Kiran Walia.

Road safety is a serious issue in the country, added Walia while inaugurating a two-day global meet on road safety in urban and rural roads on Thursday.

Walia said even if road safety is kept out of the basic curriculum for the time being, it is important to impart knowledge about it to children in one way or the other.
“I will see what can be done about it, whether to introduce it as a subject or chapter in the curriculum,” said Walia.

She added that the rules and regulations regarding road safety can be incorporated in the existing curriculum of subjects like English, Hindi, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies in the form of questions, conversation or part of stories. “Road safety issues can be introduced in a subtle way through various subjects,” said Walia.

Walia highlighted regular cases of road-rage, over-speeding, accidents and road deaths in the Capital, which is a serious concern for the government.

Chairman of the international road federation K K Kapila said, India accounts for more than 10 per cent of the global road accidents deaths — 13 lakh.

“The  road fatalities are on rise in the country and in 2011 about 1.42 lakh deaths were reported while more than 5.11 lakh people were injured,” said Kapila.

The global meet aims to discuss ways and means to reduce road accidents in urban and rural India.