Safer journeys to school for children in Armenia
The journey to school is now much safer for children in Yerevan following a new pilot project by EASST partners the National Road Safety Council.
The project aimed to raise driver awareness around schools, improve road safety education and encourage changes in construction norms around school entrances to prioritise road safety.
Three schools were selected for the pilot which are located on particularly busy or dangerous roads. This included school No. 60, which is located on Tigran Mets Avenue, one of the state roads linking Yerevan to Ararat and other regions. And while there is a zebra crossing near the school, it is not near the entrance so to save time, many kids cross in areas with fast moving traffic.
Driver awareness & safer road crossings
During the summer, before school started, the National Road Safety Council along with the Road Police worked with local school children and teachers to re-paint the zebra crossings in front of their school gates and distribute flyers to passers-by to raise awareness and visibility of the school crossings.
As a result of the initiative, the Road Police vowed to pay extra attention to roads around schools during the school year and committed to extra patrols around school gates throughout Yerevan. As a result of this extra attention, no crashes involving children were reported during September.
Road safety education
The National Road Safety Council have also been using the EASST Road Safety Education Pack, translated into Armenian, to increase children’s awareness and knowledge of road risks around their schools. Following two months of regular classes, over 1000 children have received road safety training. Twenty-nine teachers from across the three schools were also given training, covering basic information about the road safety situation in Armenian and how to use the Road Safety Education Pack to introduce road safety learning to kids in a fun and friendly way.
As the project continues, the National Road Safety Council will work with more schools and lobby the government to improve infrastructure norms around schools so that every child has a safe journey to school and a safe journey home.
