THE Department of Basic Education announced today that the Safe Scholars Programme has reached 1 000 schools and educated over 1 million pupils about road safety. Nearly 40 per cent of road deaths in South Africa are pedestrian related, according to Arrive Alive.

The programme launched during Transport Awareness Month, aims at generating awareness around road safety for young pedestrians.

It teaches them the fundamentals of road safety and provides them with reflective sashes, which have been made a mandatory part of these children’s school uniform, said Minister of Basic Education Mrs Angie Motshekga

The Safe Scholars Programme is an extension of Imperial Road Safety’s Scholar Patrol Improvement Project. Safe Scholars, which had set out to reach 300 schools and a quarter of a million students since inception in 2015, has today witnessed more than quadruple this figure with 1 039 schools and 1 026 985 pupils.