Mauritius: The Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail, Alan Ganoo, launched the Road Safety books and digital materials. The learning material was aimed towards encouraging the primary school students to learn about road safety.
The launch of the books and digital learning material was hosted at the New Bambous Geoffroy Government School in Bambous on Thursday. These comprise road safety books for Grades 1 to 6 and digital materials for Grades 1 and 2.
The Ministry has announced during the launch event that road safety books are also available in soft copy. Meanwhile 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.
Minister Alan Ganoo delivered a brief address at the launch event. He highlighted that it was important to introduce road safety in the primary education curriculum.
He reasoned that they have observed many instances where road users do not respect the law. As such, he pointed out, it was important to educate the youth at an early age.
He added that it is their responsibility to inculcate them with the right values so that they can act as road safety ambassadors.
Minister Alan Ganoo informed that they have already distributed 86,000 road safety books for Grades 1 to 6 in primary schools. This is 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.
The ministry as development 28 videos for Grade 1 and 20 videos for Grade 2 have been developed in English, French and Creole. The initiative has been taken 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 to engage the children at a young age.
This digitalisation project was implemented with the investment of Rs 4.5 million. The Minister advocated for the relevance of the project for the young children during the launch.
He said “We are today living in a digital world where children are connected to the internet and can access different platforms and social media.”
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 highlighted that they are also working on:
- The introduction of road safety education in pre-primary schools
- The adaptation of road safety digital materials for students of Special Education Needs institutions
- The development of digital materials for Grade 3.