School-based traffic safety education program in HCMC - a successful public-private partnership

1. School-based traffic safety education program in HCMC - a successful public-private partnership By Mirjam Sidik, AIP Foundation Siem Reap, 3 November 2010

2. Rationale behind • Primary school traffic safety curriculum and interactive teaching methods developed in 2004 • Implementation is limited due to restricted financial resources • Approach: combine Government priority with motivation and financial support from the private sector • AIP Foundation’s role: facilitating and bringing in the expertise in the partnership and accountability to both partners. • => SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL

3. Safe Routes to School • Provide a safer environment in and around schools • Encourage and inspire children to practice good traffic safety • Provide a real world classroom

4. Key Components • Teach children basic skills critical to safe road user behavior • Class room instructions combined with roadside training • Environmental improvements • Train-the-Trainers Workshops

5. Methodology

6. Public-Private Partnership

7. 1. School Selection • HCMC DoET identified project areas • SRS surveyed primary schools in project areas with highest need of interventions • having high density traffic flows in close proximity • having unsafe road environments surrounding the school • having supportive and motivated school administration

8. 2. Partnering with private sector • Identify potential private sector partners • Secure financial support • Determine level of involvement by sponsoring company • Match one sponsor with one school • Example: Intel Vietnam – the importance of employee volunteerism

9. 3. Pre-program assessment • Students behavioral surveys • Assess children’s habits while walking to school/going to school by motorbike or bicycle • Students knowledge surveys • Find out what constitutes safe behavior on the road

10. 4. Implementation • Environmental modifications • Train the Trainers • Distribution of TS curriculum, teaching materials to teachers, and parents materials • Project handover ceremony • Class-room learning combined with non-class activities • Enforcement activities by local authorities • Volunteer involvement

11. 5. Evaluation • Behavioral survey • 250 randomly selected students were surveyed at each school before project start and after project implementation • Traffic safety knowledge tests • were administered to 250 randomly selected students at each school before the lessons and after the lessons • 250 students from a non-project school • served as control group for the knowledge surveys • All teachers were surveyed after the training workshops

12. Results

13. Before - After

14. Results • Students feeling safe near school: increased from 42% to 57% (35.7% fold increase) • Students walking to and from school every day: increased from 33% to 44% (33% fold increase) • Traffic safety knowledge Increased from 79.09% before to 86.93% after (9.91% fold increase) • Control-school students were surveyed after receiving the non-SRS traffic safety lessons: 79.83% answered correctly • Teaching methodology is more interactive and relevant for better TSE: 92% of teachers affirmed • Improved teachers capacity and confidence: 97% affirmed after the workshop

15. Partnership & Community • Strong partnership: national, city and district level authorities worked together • SRS directly impacted • 5,441 Students • 384 Teachers • 10,000 Parents • 5,000 Family members • 32.5% of Intel staff and 46% of FedEx staff got involved

16. Challenges & Way forward • Students need to fill in the surveys independently without help from teachers • Higher grade students tended to answer more questions correctly -> indicates that TS education is even more important for younger students • Develop an evaluation method to measure the effectiveness of sponsor’s employee volunteerism • Share model and apply in other countries • The involvement and support of local and national stakeholder and commitment by the private sector are key elements to produce an ongoing and sustainable improvement in RSE.

17. Thank You