August 17 2001 Media Statement

New School Road Safety Programme

Transport Minister Mark Gosche today announced a $9 million road safety education programme to be offered to all primary and intermediate school children.

"Learning about road safety should be a life-long process. Our primary and intermediate schools are the place to start that process", Mr Gosche said.

“Last year New Zealand had its lowest annual road toll in 36 years yet 465 people died and some 11,500 were injured on our roads. These figures are unacceptable and we are still well below the best results achieved by similar countries.”

The new programme will help teachers use road safety education in their day-to-day delivery of the curriculum. It will be rolled out progressively over the next three years beginning next school year. Ultimately it will be offered to all primary and intermediate schools.

"The aim is not to add to teachers’ current work loads. Rather, teachers will be given resources and activity ideas which means they can easily incorporate road safety messages into their existing teaching programmes."

“It might mean anything from counting traffic to teach mathematics, to writing road safety advertisements to teach language,” said Mr Gosche.

The initiative has already been successfully piloted in a number of schools around the country. It is expected to cost $9.08 million over the first three years.

“This Government is determined to further reduce the trauma on our roads and I’m confident this education programme will help us achieve that.”

Education is one of three key components in the Government’s drive to reduce road fatalities. The others are enforcement and engineering activities.

ENDS

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