ROAD SAFETY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 82, 4 October 1938, Page 17

ROAD SAFETY

TRAINING IN SCHOOLS

INSTRUCTION OFFICER

With the approval of the Minister of Education (the Hon. P. Fraser) the Transport Department has selected and trained an instruction officer who will i visit schools under the control of the Wellington Education Board and give talks and demonstrations, both pictorial and practical, to the pupils on road safety. This intimation was conveyed to the executive of the Automobile Association (Wellington) last night in a letter from the Minister. The association has made frequent representations on the need for safety-first training in schools, and recently suggested that it be made compulsory. The Minister continued that if the experiment was successful it was the intention of the Transport Department to train officers for services in other centres. After describing the safety-first training already given in schools to pupils from Standard 111 on, the Minister said he was aware of the good work which officers of the association was doing, and suggested that if any association wished to offer its services to the schools 'it should secure the permission of the education board of the district. * He concluded with the promise that when the question of re-issuing the syllabus of instruction came up for consideration the representations of the association for making compulsory instruction in road safety would be borne in mind. The Minister said that with the training now given and the instructions to teachers, including the provision of safety codes at the teachers' training colleges, the object of the association's representations was well on the way to achievement.