Shell Oman celebrates implementation of road safety educational programme in four schools across Muscat

MUSCAT: Shell Oman, in partnership with the Ministry of Education (MoE), Royal Oman Police (ROP) and the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), celebrated the successful implementation of VIA’s Global Road Safety Programme in four schools in the Muscat Governorate, at the closing workshop for the effective educational course.

VIA’s road safety educational programme which was implemented in four schools in Muscat, has had a significant impact on students’ awareness of traffic safety rules and regulations.

Designed to be a flexible, accessible and easily replicable programme, the Ministry of Education, GRSP course delivery experts and teachers adapted the VIA course material to suit the cultural and contextual requirements of the Sultanate of Oman. A well-developed curriculum that has improved the skills of children across 30 countries and counting, the new programme from VIA has helped Omani students gain a better understanding of road safety, develop safe roaduser behaviour and improve their road safety skills.

Shell Oman conducted workshops led by the GRSP experts for the ROP staff. On the whole, the VIA programme’s pilot implementation has enabled the active participation and engagement of teachers, students, drivers and the local communities involved.

The newly developed skills and road-user behaviour have also led to greater adherence to traffic rules and regulations among the students. With the successful implementation of the programme in the four schools in Muscat, Oman Shell aims to reach 33 more schools across the country this year.

Talking about the experience the ROP staff had during the training, Lt. Colonel Khamis Al Batashi of the ROP said, “The ROP is playing a crucial role in implementing safe road user skills for Oman’s school children. The new programme from VIA which is supported by Oman Shell and conducted by the GRSP experts is a comprehensive and effective training module that has helped our trainers provide students with the necessary guidelines and skills for road safety.”