Abstract:

Road safety education as part of Life Skills curriculum for grades 0-4 in South Africa, is considered to be one of the key strategies in ensuring that children, as vulnerable road users, have the skills to interact appropriately and safely as pedestrians with traffic situations. The study acknowledges that very little is done to determine whether knowledge acquired in the classroom is actually transferred when real life encounters occur. The focus of the cohort study is to place emphasis on the factors that influence particularly vulnerable primary school learners’ behavioural choices as pedestrians. The cohort study operationalised the Theory of Planned Behaviour through the structured observation of learners playing a simulated computer game in which they had to walk from school to their home, navigating road user choices in crossing the streets as pedestrians. The same cohort of learners were tracked starting with grade 4 in 2015, grade 5 in 2016 and grade 6 in 2017. Five different purposively selected sites were identified due to their proximity to national roads and in most cases the national road dissecting the community.

The five sites were:
- Eastern Cape Province: Mthatha region;
- KwaZulu-Natal Province: Ugu region;
- Limpopo Province: Botlokwa region;
- North West Province: Potchefstroom region; and
- Western Cape: De Doorns region.

At each of the purposively selected sites, six schools were randomly chosen using a five kilometre nearness to the national road. During the three years, 3321 learners participated. During year 1 the study used a pre and post-test to first assess the baseline whereupon learners were exposed to an educational intervention and a post-test was conducted a month after the intervention. Year two and three comprised both a single assessment with all the assessments building on previous knowledge and gradually asking learners to navigate more complex road situations. As pedestrians, their specific behavioural choices were assessed in why they use a scholar patrol, a normal pedestrian crossing or using neither and choosing to cross the road anywhere.

Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour to analyse the data establishes the following trends evident within the cohort:
- Their behavioural choices in using a scholar patrol is influenced by their attitude towards behaviour
- Their behavioural choices in using the pedestrian crossing is the product of their attitude towards behaviour
- Their behavioural choices in unsafely crossing the road is the product of perceived behavioural control

The research confirms that without actual roadside experience, learners find it difficult to translate classroom learning into adopted practice. The study makes specific recommendations that focus on strengthening the involvement of parents, the redevelopment of the curriculum with road safety as transversal topic and building safety networks around schools to ensure safe road behaviour of the most vulnerable in our society.

Keywords:

Road safety education, primary school learners, Theory of Planned Behaviour.