4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
|
The RSE was first introduced in 2007 as a pilot project in a few selected schools in every state. Based on the success of the RSE, it was rolled out nationwide to all Primary 1 schools in 2008 while Primary 2 & Primary 4 syllabuses were being piloted simultaneously. In 2009, RSE for Primary 1, 2 & 4 were implemented nationwide. The Primary phase of the RSE was completed with its nationwide implementation from Primary 1 to Primary 6 in 2010. This was followed by the implementation of RSE in Secondary 1 in 2012 and Secondary 2 in 2013 while RSE in the primary level continues to be taught. RSE will be expanded to Secondary 3 in 2014.
The first stage of the RSE was content development. A consultant with experience in developing a road safety module was appointed to spearhead the content development with input from various stakeholders including RSD, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS), Ministry of Education and others. The content needed to find a balance between learning a language while creating and increasing road safety awareness and knowledge.
Once the content was finalized, a Training of Trainers (TOT) programme was embarked upon. Bahasa Malaysia teachers were selected and exposed to RSE. As this is a new element in their syllabus, there were trained and guided on how to teach RSE to their students. These selected teachers also known as Master Trainers later trained another group of teachers who will eventually return to their respective schools to train their peers on how to teach RSE. To make it easier for the teachers to teach RSE, a Teacher’s Guidebook and Teaching Aid is provided to all schools. RSD also prints and distributes RSE Activity Books for all students nationwide to practice on.
|
|
5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
|
The main contributors to this initiative include the Road Safety Department, Ministry of Education, Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS), University Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Innovate Solutions Sdn Bhd.
|
6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
|
This initiative was fully funded by the Government through the Road Safety Department. The financial cost of this initiative includes the development of the RSE content, training of trainers and printing of the RSE materials (Teacher’s Guidebook, Teaching Aid and Activity Book). The Ministry of Education provided the teachers for the training while the content development involved Road Safety Department, Ministry of Education, Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research, University Putra Malaysia and Innovate Solutions Sdn Bhd.
|
|
7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
|
The most successful output is that all Primary 1 to 6 students and Secondary 1 to 2 students in Malaysia have been exposed to RSE. They now have a higher knowledge and awareness on road safety compared to the generation before them.
The Training of Trainers programme which allowed Bahasa Malaysia teachers to be exposed and trained on the teaching of RSE played a pivotal role in the effective implementation of RSE.
The monitoring and evaluation done by UPM and MIROS also helped us in identifying the challenges and improving the initiative.
|
|
8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
|
University Putra Malaysia (UPM) and the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) were engaged to monitor and evaluate the RSE as they are research institutions with the expertise and resources to carry out this task.
The evaluation of the effectiveness of RSE implemented in schools nationwide can be split into three studies. The approaches for each of the work scope are health outcomes, knowledge and practice and observational study.
I. Knowledge and Practise
This study is responsible to evaluate psychological outcome of major developmental domains (knowledge and practice scores) among the primary school children. This study will be carried out for a duration period of three years. Intervention group of Children will be followed from year 1 to year 4 to look at the accumulated knowledge obtained on RSE as well changes in practice related to RSE. A time-series analysis will be applied to look at the changes among children for a period of three years on the effect of RSE.
II. Health Outcome (HO)
A prospective intervention-control study following children who are exposed and not exposed to RSE program for 2 years and observing whether they are involved in road traffic injuries (RTI) over the period of time. Study population will be among primary school children. Children with intervention in this study will be taken from schools where new RSE program is to be implemented. There will be matched controls from neighbouring districts with schools where program not implemented. This gives a ratio of 1:1 between intervention and control.
III. Observation Study (OS)
In evaluating the effectiveness of the RSE programme, this study aims to measure whether there are any positive improvements in the road safety behaviours of these school children in relation to the expected learning outcomes of the RSE modules. The observation of the children behaviour in terms of road safety practices while coming to or leaving the schools was conducted before and after implementation of the RSE modules. Observations were conducted at schools for one-hour before the school morning sessions starts and for one-hour when the school morning session ends. Enumerators who are positioned at their identified locations near the entrance and exit gates then observed and recorded the number of positive behaviours (compliance) and negative behaviours (non-compliance) into the forms using tally marks.
|
|
9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
|
There were many challenges encountered during the implementation of the RSE.
i. Due to budget constraints, the training of Secondary 2 and Secondary 3 teachers could not be conducted. To overcome this problem, Secondary 1 teachers who have already attended the RSE training sessions were asked to guide their colleagues in the same school.
ii. The late delivery of the RSE Activity Book for students by the contractors to a number of schools caused the teaching of RSE to be disrupted. This was rectified by planning ahead early and starting the distribution of the books at the early of the academic year.
iii. Not all schools were able to complete the entire RSE module planned for the 3-month period and this will effect on the full benefit to be attained from the program. Teachers were asked to plan their teaching schedule more carefully.
iv. Not all schools implemented RSE for year 6 students due to the impending national UPSR examination. This could affect the full scale benefit of the intervention. The teachers were advised to accommodate the RSE module.
v. As the annual printing and delivery of RSE Activity Books to all schools nationwide consume a significant portion of the budget, work is in progress to upload the books on the internet for the respective schools to download the module.
vi. There were also feedbacks that the level of difficulty for the RSE module is slightly on the higher end which makes it difficult for weaker students. This will be rectified when the module is revised again.
|