Council approves road safety education for schools nationwide

The Council of Education has approved the inclusion of road safety education into three subjects – English, religious and cultural studies, and science education.

Deputy Corps Marshal (DCM) training department of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Chidiebere Benjamin who disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during the FRSC management retreat and press conference, noted that the decision was taken last month at the council meeting.

“In the last Council of Education meeting that was held last month, the decision was taken to increase road safety education into three subjects, English, religious and cultural studies and science education,” he said.

According to Benjamin, the education department of the FRSC has commenced writing of books on safety education for schools nationwide, adding that the FRSC has also started deploying Corp members to take students through safety education.

“So as we speak right now, we are writing books one and two and three of road safety education for basic primary school, senior primary school and junior secondary school.

“So we believe in catching them young. The education department, or unit of FRSC goes to schools to teach them. You will observe most times. I am sure you wonder, what are the corp members doing with FRSC, the corp members are the ones who we actually deploy to the schools to teach them through safety education.

“Because, as you know, like the Bible say, if you teach a child the way it should go when he is older, he will not depart from it. Our generation, they say we are wasted generation. People want us to go out quickly, but this new generation, we want to be sure they don’t make the mistakes that we have made, so we want to start early to teach them the proper road culture.”

Earlier in his remarks, the Corps Public Education Officer, Olusegun Ogungbemide noted that Ember Months, always witnessed high vehicular movement, traffic congestions, gridlocks, road traffic crashes, and the attendant loss of lives and properties.

He regretted that the situation is further worsened by the excesses of motorists along road corridors which leave horrifying nightmares in the minds of all stakeholders, motorists, travellers, government, FRSC, and other security agencies.

“It is this and many other factors, especially the need to surmount the aforementioned challenges that the Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed flagged-off the 2024 Ember Months campaign and directed the immediate commencement of Mega Public Enlightenment and Sensitisation Campaign in all states of the Federation, including the Federal Capital Territory.

“He ordered that all hands must be on deck to ensure free flow of traffic, reduction in road crashes, improved enforcement of traffic laws, and improved enlightenment on the proper use of roads in Nigeria as a Country to trend down road traffic fatalities by 5%.

“To achieve greater result during the outing, the Corps Marshal and the entire Management of the Corps has had cause to ventilate on the current state of road safety administration and traffic management in Nigeria, with a view to review existing strategies both on the educational and operational fronts.

“These new policies targeted at not only improving the road transportation sector by changing drivers’ behaviour, but also present Nigeria as a safety-conscious nation before the comity of states. These efforts are being made irrespective of the obvious challenges which put pressure on the Corps, being the Federal Government agency responsible for the safety of lives and properties on our roads.”