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Road accidents are one of the heavy tolls that society pays for the rapid development of the modern world. Every year in Israel over 30,000 people are injured on the roads; over 400 are killed. In 1991, 31,541 people were injured in road accidents, of whom 3796 were children under 14; 444 were killed, of whom 51 were children.
These figures reflect the horrific fact that every year we lose more than a whole class of schoolchildren in road accidents. Moreover, every year children's lives are devastated by long hospitalization for long and painful periods and their lives are never the same again afterwards. We. have an obligation to do everything we can to alter this situation at its root, to ensure better lives for our children and for ourselves.
The Ministry of Education and Culture is one of the institutions working very actively in this direction. Nearly every family in Israel ~ involved in what goes on in the educational system, since 1,600,000 schoolchildren study in its institutions. Road Safety Education serves as an educational instrument for the children; and a propaganda instrument for teachers, parents and the adult populati6n at large.
It is directed at both the present and future: through education we improve the safety of children who are in kindergarten and at school; and in planning for the future, we can improve road safety and the quality of life in the next few decades, when today's schoolchildren will be driving on Israel's roads and their behaviour will become a decisive factor in our way of life.
The main objectives of road safety education are:
- To prevent and reduce road accidents and the damage they cause by providing information and skills, as well as inculcating understanding and inducing correct behavioural patterns.
- To improve the quality and code of behaviour on the roads through education towards tolerance and consideration for one's fellow man.
Road Safety Education also attempts to instil the following values in the children:
- Recognition of the value of life-and the need to preserve life and to prevent injury to people and property.
- Personal responsibility in everything concerned with the use of the road - as a pedestrian, as a passenger or as a driver: exercising control through acquiring' and practising correct skills and regular habits of safety behaviour.
- Ability to make effective decisions in different situations on the road through knowledge of the traffic system and human limitations within the system.
- Knowledge and understanding of transport legislation and road safety regulations, recognition of their importance and the obligation to comply with them.
Road Safety Education is a national priority because our very lives depend on it.
Involved in Road Safety educational activities are the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Transport - the Road Safety Administration, the Israel Police Force, the National Council for Prevention of Accidents and other bodies.
Schoolchildren draw stamps on the subject of "Road Safety"
The teaching of art in the educational system combines subjects from different disciplines. The drawing of a stamp on the subject of "road safety" is an example of internalising road safety regulations into the language of drawing.
In the school year 5751/1990-1991, the Philatelic Service of the Postal Authority, the Department of Road Safety and the Inspectorate of Art and Drama Studies in the Ministry of Education and Culture announced a National Stamp Drawing Competition for schoolchildren on the subject of Road Safety.
Schoolchildren from all over the country took part. A board of judges, composed of representatives of the Inspectorates of Road Safety Education, Art and Drama Studies, the Road Safety Authority, and the Israel Museum, went through the drawings and chose 60 of the best to be presented to the Committee for New Stamps of the Postal Authority's Philatelic Service.
The board, headed by the director of the Philatelic Service, selected a number of works to appear on a series of stamps.
The children whose drawings were chosen for the stamps are:
- Lior Abohovsky, Graduate Class, "Yachdav" School, Tel Aviv.
- Elinor Paz, 5th Grade, "Remez" School, Yehud.
- Moran Dadush, 6th Grade, Shalom Aleichem" School, Bezet
