It is necessary to apply traffic safety teaching early
According to statistics from the National Traffic Safety Committee, on average, about 2,000 children die in traffic accidents each year, of which 90% of accidents involve students. Faced with concerns about traffic safety issues related to school age, Mr. Tran Huu Minh - Chief of Office of the National Traffic Safety Committee, said that for traffic safety education (TSC) on school seats to be effective, it is necessary to have an exam for students.
Agreeing with this proposal, Ms. Nguyen Thi Van (Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi) currently has a child studying at Dong Ngac B Primary School (Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi) said that currently, traffic accidents involving students are increasingly frequent, so focusing on education on traffic safety for children is extremely necessary.
"A few days ago, there was an accident next to my house because students were playing around after school, suddenly running onto the road when there were vehicles moving, leading to the accident. Fortunately, the vehicle owner reacted quickly and broke the brakes quickly, so he only had a slight collision with 2 motorbikes traveling in the same direction without causing harm to the students. However, from such an incident, we can see the importance of traffic safety education right from the school.
Although schools have currently provided traffic safety training programs for students, most of them are extracurricular and irregular programs. In addition, the children were also given traffic safety books but they were not taken to school for almost a year. That is why the family is very concerned about the children not having much knowledge about traffic safety, leading to many negative consequences when participating in traffic" - Ms. Van shared.
Ms. Van believes that it is necessary to apply traffic safety teaching early to students and cannot teach in a given way, then let it go, causing them to not have any knowledge about traffic safety to apply in necessary situations.
Changing teaching methods to suit
Regarding this issue, according to Dr. Phan Le Binh - Lecturer of the Master's Program in Infrastructure Engineering at Vietnam - Japan, there should be different teaching methods and testing knowledge about traffic safety for each level of education. In particular, all levels of education such as preschool and primary school need to focus on recognition; from higher education levels, more practical elements will be integrated, associated with real-life situations.
"Currently, teaching traffic safety has been implemented in some schools but has not brought high efficiency due to a lack of practical elements and much of it is based on books. This not only does not bring efficiency but also causes boredom for students, affecting the process of absorbing knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to soon change teaching methods as well as apply tests to make students more focused when receiving knowledge from traffic safety" - Mr. Binh shared.
According to information from Lawyer Nguyen Van Phi - Deputy Director of Lawkey Law Firm, the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety 2024, effective from January 1, 2025, has provisions on education of traffic safety and legal knowledge for children from preschool level.
Article 6 of this law stipulates that state management agencies of education and training must be responsible for developing, integrating, and incorporating legal knowledge on road traffic order and safety into teaching programs in preschools, general education institutions, and vocational training institutions suitable for each level of education and major.
In addition, according to Clause 10, Article 32 of Decree 168/2024/ND-CP and Clause 1, Article 56 of the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety 2024, individuals who hand over vehicles to underage people to drive motorbikes may be fined from 8-10 million VND, and those who hand over vehicles to underage people to drive cars may be fined from 28-30 million VND. For organizations with the same violation, the fine is twice the fine for individuals.
"Not only for students, but even schools and parents need to uphold their responsibility in managing their children, not letting them use motorbikes and mopeds when they are not qualified to participate in traffic. This is not only to limit fines but also to ensure the safety of the students and those around them" - Mr. Phi emphasized.
