Teach Middle East Magazine Sep - Dec 2020 Issue 1 Volume 8 | Page 22
Sharing Good Practice
WE NEED MANDATORY ROAD SAFETY
CURRICULUM CONTENT IN THE UAE!
BY THOMAS EDELMANN
• Nurturing the ‘next generation’
of responsible drivers: once the
children of today will reach the age
of becoming drivers, they will do so
with the proper road safety habits
already instilled into them for a long
time.
Such road safety curriculum exists
in other countries and the resident
curriculum content experts can easily
take it as a starting point. Local road
safety experts and stakeholders can
add local nuances in the content
development process. Once the
curriculum content for the various
years/stages has been developed
and approved, it will be easy for UAE’s
teachers to deliver it.
D
ata from UAE governmental
entities shows, that “…When
it came to preventable child
deaths, road traffic accidents
were revealed to be the main cause of
fatal injuries among children between
2008 and 2015, comprising 64 per cent
of all deaths…”1)
In June 2018 UAE governmental
entities published: “…Almost half
(46%) of accidents in Abu Dhabi caused
by youth. According to traffic reports,
speeding and reckless driving were
the major causes of accidents among
many youths. Statistics show that
young people represent the largest
proportion of drivers and many of them
lack road courtesy and fail to abide by
the law or to take road conditions into
account in order to preserve their lives
and the lives of other road users…" 2)
The conclusion is that the UAE has a
serious problem with regards to road
safety of our children and youth. We
firmly believe, that besides the role the
families have to play in educating their
children/youth about safe behaviour
and in protecting them while driving
them, UAE’s education sector must
rise to the challenge! Like in many
other countries with lower child/youth
accident statistics, the UAE education
sector needs to implement mandatory
road safety curriculum for all ages/
stages/years with a sense of urgency.
mandatory road safety curriculums,
various stakeholders like governmental
entities (police, RTA, DOT, etc.) and
private entities (car brands, tire brands,
child car seat brands, platforms like
RoadSafetyUAE, etc.) are organising
ad-hoc, short lasting and tactical road
safety awareness drives in schools and
universities. However, this approach is
of limited reach, lacks uniformity and
homogenous content and is not of
the desired strategic long-term effect.
We firmly believe, that only mandatory
road safety curricula for all pupils at all
ages can deliver the 3 vital outcomes:
• Protecting children ‘now’ (children
must understand the basics of road
safety in order to know how and
why to behave safely in the car (seat
belts, etc.) and on the road (crossing
the road, how to ride a bicycle safely,
etc.).
• Turning educated children into
ambassadors for road safety, as
they have the power to share their
knowledge with their parents
(‘Daddy, I learned that you should
never use the mobile phone while
driving!’), their sibling and friends
(‘Little brother, you must always
wear your seat belt!’) and others in
their surroundings.
To date and in the absence of the
strategic long-term existence of
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Class Time
In order to go the first step, we are
inviting interested stakeholders in the
education system, like governmental
decision
makers,
government
and private schools and university
operators, teacher platforms and
other concerned stakeholders to
come forward and to connect with
RoadSafetyUAE in order to meet and
develop a road map of how to swiftly,
comprehensively and competently
create the framework and content
for UAE’s mandatory road safety
curriculum.
We would be thrilled – in the interest
of UAE’s children – to see this
implemented in 2019!
All readers are welcome to share their
views, to connect and to be a part of the
initiative: Thomas@RoadSafetyUAE.
com; http://www.roadsafetyuae.com/
suggest/road-safety-proposal/
Sources:
1)
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/
transport/almost-half-of-accidents-in-abu-
dhabi-caused-by-youth
2)
https://www.thenational.ae/uae/more-
than-three-quarters-of-all-child-injuries-in-
abu-dhabi-occur-at-home-1.705033
For further information, please contact:
Thomas Edelmann, Founder and Managing Director, RoadSafetyUAE
[email protected],