Scholar patrol and road safety education initiative hopes to keep children safe

To ensure the safety of learners, Balmoral College assigned one of its teachers, Thoko Dube, to teach learners about road safety.

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This included all the dangers on the roads.

At the school, children are taught how to cross the roads and how to interact with traffic safely, including when being dropped off at their final destinations when travelling to school and back home.

“We have many learners who travel on public transport or walk from the nearby settlement to get to the school and back home. So, it’s important that we help them understand how to cross a road or navigate traffic.

“Even those who use scholar transport need to be accustomed to the road rules and other safety measures to follow when being dropped off, especially in the school driveway,” said Dube.

Dube pointed out that the safety of children requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders, including the school, drivers, parents and the children themselves.

“We need to work hand in hand to keep the learners safe on the roads. Drivers, including the school transport drivers, need to make it their responsibility to ensure that no tragic accidents happen, especially when children are being dropped off.

“There are certain situations that drivers need to be aware of when transporting children. One of them is, when being dropped off, children are likely to dart out of their vehicles and run across the driveway or road without checking for oncoming traffic. They can also be easily hidden from view by their transport vehicles,” explained Dube.

Drivers, including staff and school transport operators, must always remember to slow down as much as possible when approaching public transport, particularly near schools or school transport drop-off sections, double-check before moving around the vehicle and be prepared for a child popping out unexpectedly.

“School-going children are also more likely to make mistakes by misjudging the speed and distance of a vehicle when crossing the roads. It’s, therefore, important for the driver to make decisions that make allowance for mistakes and misjudgment from children around schools.”

Obey the road rules
Dube also urged drivers, especially those using busy roads around schools, to always obey the rules, such as adhering to a speed limit in a school zone.

“We sometimes witness cars driving recklessly and dangerously speeding on the roads around our school. Drivers should be more cautious to ensure the safety of the school-going children.”

Dube pointed out that their school used to have a trained and registered scholar patrol team managing traffic on Main Reef Road, ensuring the safety of their fellow learners.

However, this programme was put on hold almost two years ago due to several issues related to Covid-19. The school is, however, planning to reinstitute the project and send its team out on the road again.

The school thanked the volunteers from the local community who are helping learners cross the busy roads every morning and after school.

“We also thank the municipality for the installation of the traffic-calming speed hump on Wit Deep Road, saying it served as a very important response after several learners were fatally hit by vehicles while trying to cross the road.”

The stretch of road has in the past couple of years seen at least four separate fatal incidents where school-going children were knocked over by vehicles.

However, the school management said it has noted a downward trend in crashes involving learners since the installation of speed humps on the road in question.

Here is why scholar patrol and road safety is important
Arrive Alive shared the following information on the benefits and importance of scholar patrol

Background info to scholar patrol
Scholar patrol is an important part of road safety education and essential to enhancing the safety of our scholars at their schools. Not only does it regulate traffic, improve speed calming and facilitate safe crossing of the road, but also instils in the minds of our young pedestrians an awareness of the importance of road safety.

The Safety Patrol Programme was started by the American Automobile Association (AAA) in 1920. Boys, when they reached the sixth grade, would be screened for the proper character traits and then trained in safety and put to use.

Why do we need scholar patrol?
• Each year, children travel to and from school almost 200 times
• Dangerous traffic congestion occurs around schools with so many parents dropping their children off in the morning and picking them up after school
• Traffic authorities, school teachers and principals recognise that this congestion creates the most dangerous location on a child’s journey to and from school
• Scholar patrol performs a very important and responsible public service by controlling traffic and by safeguarding scholar pedestrians. Learner patrollers guide fellow learners and prevent them from entering traffic when it is unsafe

Benefits of scholar patrol
• The scholar patrol programme benefits the school, the community and the learner safety patrollers
• The programme provides quality training and recognition for learner safety patroller’s efforts
• Apart from providing safer access to schools at nearby crossings, this programme inspires patrollers to develop positive relationships with peers and authority figures and develop leadership skills, teamwork, maturity and a sense of responsibility
• The scholar patrol helps foster closer ties with the community and increases the school’s visibility in the community
• Student patrollers are visible ambassadors for their school and assist both parents and their children at school crossings

Characteristics of members of scholar patrol
Scholar patrol is a call for unselfish service to fellow learners and the community. It requires the efforts of individuals with the following characteristics:
• Responsibility – a focus on the safety of pedestrians is important
• Punctuality – the team and our fellow pedestrian scholars depend on the team to be on duty, on time.
• Dedication – demands are made on the free time of scholars and their ability to come out in any weather conditions, their enthusiasm and need for ongoing training
• Commitment to teamwork with character traits like dependability, attention to detail, honesty and seriousness

Obligations on road users
To benefit from scholar patrol and enhance the effectiveness thereof for road safety, road users such as motorists need to oblige with responsible behaviour as well:
• Obey the rules of the road
• Do not stop and park across the red and yellow demarcated areas outside school gates
• Do not obstruct the scholar patrol’s view of oncoming traffic thereby endangering the lives of pedestrians
• When scholar patrol team members politely ask the parents to move their vehicles and record the registration numbers as they have been instructed, accept these directives
• Do not abuse the team members by shouting at them or making rude gestures

Source: https://www.arrivealive.co.za/scholar-patrol-and-road-safety

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