MEDIA STATEMENT

KZN TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT HANDS OVER R30 000 TO SCHOOLS

Thubelihle High School in Ladysmith, Bheki High School in Durban and iNhlanhla High School in Pietermartizburg are each R10 000 richer today thanks to the Participatory Education Techniques (PET) Project of the KZN Department of Transport.

Scores of pupils from schools around KwaZulu-Natal converged in Durban over the last two days (yesterday and today - Thursday and Friday) for the provincial finals of the Road Safety PET Project.

PET is one of the initiatives undertaken by the KZN Department of Transport to raise road safety awareness at grassroots level by asking schools to identify road safety problems that have a negative impact on their communities. Once the problem has been identified, the transport department appoints a panel consisting of various road safety stakeholders, including the Department of Education and the road safety engineering, enforcement and education sections within the transport department.

All the entries are then put on a selection process and based on pre-determined criteria schools are selected and put on a year-long road safety programme where they are work shopped on how to conduct research on the identified road safety problems. They are also taught how to use various forms of information gathering techniques such as library, internet, collecting statistics, conducting surveys, individual and focus group interviews and to record people's behaviour. After analyzing all the information, pupils are then asked to formulate a solution which is presented in the form of a research document.

The regional finals have been completed. Eight schools from the Transport Department's four regions, Pietermaritzburg, Durban, Empangeni and Ladysmith participated in the provincial finals and presented their research documents between Thursday and Friday. Three winning schools, one from the urban category and two from the rural category, each received R10 000 worth of equipment for their respective schools.

The aim of PET is to encourage learners to be aware of road safety issues in their communities and to empower them with practical research skills. Since 2000, when PET was introduced the KZN Transport Department has sponsored eleven computers and a variety of sporting equipment to various schools in the province.

Presenting the awards to the winning schools, CEO of the KZN Transport Department, Dr. Kwazi Mbanjwa urged learners to make road safety a priority issue from an early age. "Until each and everyone one of you makes road safety your individual responsibility, we will not win this battle against deaths on our roads. So help us to spread this message of road safety to everyone you come into contact with", Mbanjwa said.

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