To ensure the safety of students, the Ministry of Education will be enhancing the Road Safety Patrols programme in schools across the country.
On Wednesday morning, Chief Education Officer, Dr. Marcel Hutson met with Assistant Chief Education Officer for Health and Family Life Education (ACEO-HFLE) Carol Benn and other representatives from the unit along with representatives from the National Road Safety Council and the Guyana Police Force’s Traffic Department, to discuss a road safety plan of action.
During brief remarks, Chief Education Officer, Dr Marcel Hutson stated that it is important for students to be equipped with the knowledge on how to properly utilize the roadways.
Teachers, along with the students, who will form the patrol, will be trained to recognise traffic safety as well as how to properly use the pedestrian crossing to assist.
“I believe training is critical and must start at the foundation. We need our children to be trained at a tender age so that they could become agents of change so that when they go on the roads also they could add to the work of the police.”
The improvement of the programme will commence in the Georgetown Education District before being expanded to the other regions. With the recent expansion of Mandela Avenue and to ensure students use the roadway correctly, students at the North Ruimveldt and East Ruimveldt Secondary Schools have already been sensitized with 15 students each a part of the Road Safety Patrols.
The National Road Safety Council handed over a Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety to Dr Hutson.