Thanks to a collaboration between the Department of Basic Education and the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), South African school learners will from now on be able to “exit the schooling system having obtained a learner driver’s licence,” said transport minister Fikile Mbalula in a media release on 17 March.
This move is part of a number of new road-safety education initiatives which aim to improve the standard of driving across the country.
Mbalula said education is vital to improving road safety and road behaviour in South Africa, and that teaching the correct road behaviour at schools is an important part of this process.
Learner road safety education has now been incorporated in the open-source Life Orientation books used in public schools, said basic education minister Angie Motshekga.
The collaboration between the Department of Basic Education and the RTMC will involve classroom lessons and formal accreditation through the RTMC at public schools going forward.
This initiative has been a long time in the making and was previously put on hold due to budgetary constraints, said Motshekga.
The new school-based driving courses have been described by Mbalula as “an important catalyst towards changing the behaviour of motorists on the roads and ensuring that our drivers are competent.”
The state of South Africa’s roads
In January, the Automobile Association (AA) criticized the state of the country’s road laws, with particular attention to the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act that was declared unconstitutional by the Pretoria High Court.
At the end of January 2022, it was revealed that vehicle collisions rose by 75% and fatalities by 78% within a one-year period.
In March, the AA said that the poor road infrastructure was also to blame for the high accident and death toll on the country’s roads – and not poor human behaviour.
The shocking statistics saw Mbalula announce new measures to reduce the high number of road accidents.
These measures include:
- Operations to prevent drunk driving during weekends.
- Having various stakeholders assist with an increased focus on driver and vehicle fitness.
- Road safety education and awareness campaigns to address risky behaviour amongst the youth.
- A focused national pedestrian programme introduced at routes that have been identified as hazardous.
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