Road Safety Club at August Town Primary School Making an Impact

The Road Safety Club at the August Town Primary School is making a positive impact, with the students not only practising the measures learned but also taking the message of road safety into their homes and wider communities.

“I love how they teach us to be careful on the road,” said grade-four student Quacian Cooper, at a recent road-safety awareness session at the school, which was staged by the Editorial and Photography Department of the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) along with the Island Traffic Authority (ITA) Road Safety Unit.

“They show videos of people who are not paying attention or using their phones, and that’s how people get hurt. I invited my friends because it’s quite fun to learn how to be safe on the road. I’m having fun in the club, and I teach my mom and my little sister about road safety,” she told JIS News.

Grade-one student, Olivia Smith said: “The Road Safety Club is awesome. It’s very, very fun and I learn so much new things about road safety. I learn to look if no cars are coming, I learn to cross the street and all those stuff.”

Head of the Road Safety Club and grade-four teacher, Serita Williams, told JIS News that the club was born two years ago after a visit from the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) to create a safe pathway for students in the community under the institution’s ‘Safe Passages: Safe Routes to School’ Programme.

Miss Williams said she thought it was a good idea to incorporate practical lessons for students about road safety.

“For our first meeting, I took the students out on the street to the pedestrian crossing and taught them to cross. On a weekly basis I show them videos on how to cross safely, what not to do on the road, and what to wear at night [as pedestrians], and so on,” she explained.

“Even persons outside, the taxi operators, say, ‘Miss when will the kids come out again for the demonstration?’ It’s becoming a thing and they look forward to it. Even the police officers [at the nearby police station] ask when the kids will return. The kids are very receptive and they really like it,” she noted.

The school has a road-safety garden with 3D road signs, and there is a colourful wall with words and pictures related to safe road use.

Miss Williams said that an added benefit of the road-safety wall is that it has helped to improve literacy skills.

“I’m very impressed. The students will sometimes test each other on how to spell the words. You know kids play around and they will say, ‘spell the word border’ and they stand there and eye the words. So, we see how this programme has benefited them in terms of literacy,” she noted.

Miss Williams told JIS News that while the club is open to students of every grade, most of the participants are from grades one to four.

“We try to reach them [the older students] and we impart [the road-safety lessons] through the guidance counsellors. If you look at the curriculum for grades one to three, Road Safety is included,” she pointed out.

Acting Principal, Dwight Peart acknowledged that the Road Safety Club has been instrumental in increasing students’ awareness about road safety.

“They are mindful when they are on the road, what to do, the dos and don’ts, and police officers often interact with them. Oftentimes they will say ‘Sir, Mr. Peart, take your time and drive or Miss when you’re going home make sure you know what to do’. The babies more so are the ones telling the adults what to do or what not to do on the roads. I really see the impact of road safety with what is happening with our students and parents as well.”

Education and Information Officer of the Road Safety Unit, Dontae Matthews, told JIS News that the Unit partners with the ‘Safe Passages: Safe Routes to School’ Programme to provide road-safety training for teachers and students.

This includes initiatives to help students understand road-safety concepts and challenge them to utilise pedestrian crossings and observe the road signs.

Mr. Matthews said that the Unit will assist in ensuring that signage and road markings at the entrance of the school, which were displaced during recent roadworks, are replaced.

“We have been informed that the pedestrian crossing in front the school, since the road was recently paved, no longer exists and a road sign leading up to the school is not there. So, we will be liaising with National Works Agency, which is the entity responsible for roadworks and signs, and we’ll have them come and do an audit of the roadway… repaint the roadway and put up a new sign and others that are needed,” he told JIS News.

Mr. Matthews said the Road Safety Unit will continue its public education campaign in schools, especially during Child Month in May.