The Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail, Mr Alan Ganoo, launched, this morning at the New Bambous Geoffroy Government School in Bambous, the Road Safety books and digital materials for primary school students.
These comprise road safety books for Grades 1 to 6 and digital materials for Grades 1 and 2. The road safety books are also available in soft copy, while the digital materials can be downloaded from the Mauritius Institute of Education's and the Ministry of Land Transport and Light Rail's websites. The YouTube channel of the Traffic Management and Road Safety Unit was also launched on this occasion.
The Deputy Director of the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE), Mrs A. Ankiah-Gungadeen; as well as other personalities were also present at the event.
In his address, Minister Ganoo highlighted that road safety has been introduced in the primary education curriculum as it has been observed that many road users do not respect the law. As such, he pointed out, it was important to educate the youth at an early age and inculcate them with the right values so that they can act as road safety ambassadors.
The Minister informed that some 86,000 road safety books for Grades 1 to 6 have already been distributed in primary schools across the island, in addition to the 'Teachers Guide Book' which will enable teachers to be accustomed with a well-defined programme for road safety classes. He emphasised that his Ministry in collaboration with the Mauritius Film Development Corporation and the Ministry of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology have digitalised road safety lessons for Grades 1 and 2.
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According to him, this digitalisation project, to the tune of some Rs 4.5 million, has been implemented as we are today living in a digital world where children are connected to the internet and can access different platforms and social media. Some 28 videos for Grade 1 and 20 videos for Grade 2 have been developed in English, French and Creole in a bid for road safety education to be more interesting for children. He also underscored that some 31 digital resources for Grade 1 and 23 for Grade 2 have been produced. They comprise 'drag and drop' exercises, quiz, puzzles and other activities.
Moreover, Minister Ganoo remarked that the second phase of this project consists of the development of the road safety curriculum for students of Grades 7 to 13. He further stressed that the following are also in the pipeline: the introduction of road safety education in pre-primary schools; the adaptation of road safety digital materials for students of Special Education Needs institutions; and the development of digital materials for Grade 3.
For her part, MIE's Deputy Director underlined that this project required the collaboration of numerous stakeholders comprising representatives of various Ministries, the Mauritius Police Force and the MIE, amongst others. She added that children being accustomed with road safety programmes at an early age will also be able to raise awareness among their family members and friends.
