About 250 learners will this week compete to become the national champions in debate and the design of the best road safety model.
Under the banner of the National Participatory Educational Techniques (PET) Competition and Road Safety Debate, the event will be held from Monday until Friday in Benoni, Gauteng.
Hosted by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), in partnership with the national Department of Basic Education, the competition is a knowledge transfer project aimed at changing learners’ attitudes towards road safety issues by means of participatory education.
“Informed by the National Road Safety Strategy, the project is directed at high schools, particularly grade 10 and 11. It encourages learners to identify road safety problems within their communities and find solutions by way of research into the problems, thereby providing them with a hands-on opportunity to solve their own community’s road safety problems,” RTMC said.
On Friday, the project will culminate in a national competition, where the winning schools will be awarded prizes by the Minister of Transport, Bonginkosi Nzimande.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Gauteng Roads and Transport MEC Ismail Vadi will launch the annual provincial October Transport Month Campaign.
Vadi is expected to outline his department’s major activities for the month-long programme that includes the launch of the Gibela train manufacturing plant in Nigel and road infrastructure launches, amongst others.
This year’s campaign, to be held under the theme ‘Transforming and Modernising Public Transport in Gauteng’, seeks to create awareness about the importance of transport as an enabler of economic growth.
It also supports the Gauteng government’s Transformation, Modernization and Re-Industrialisation (TMR) interventions. – SAnews.gov.za
