Ministries Raise Public Awareness On Student Safety, Sustainable Practices

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) M Mazharul Haque | The Peninsula

Doha: The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has called upon people to ensure the safety of students during school drop-off and pick-up, while the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) urged schools to care for the environment.

“To ensure the safety of our students, we remind everyone to follow safety guidelines during school drop-off and pick-up. The safety of our students is a collective responsibility,” the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said on it X account.

The MoI's General Directorate of Traffic, represented by the Traffic Awareness Department, has launched a back-to-school awareness campaign. This annual campaign is organised to raise awareness about traffic safety requirements and to promote adherence to traffic rules and etiquette among school students.

In an awareness video, an MoI traffic inspector asks a child going to school on a car with his guardian to fasten the seatbelt; the same is demonstrated in a bus, showing another child fastening the belt. The video demonstrates a traffic inspector helping students to cross the road.

There is automated monitoring of not wearing a seatbelt and using a mobile phone while driving through radars since September 3 last year. Automated radars detect unfastened seatbelts and the use of mobile phones.

“For the safety of our students during their trips to and from school, we advise the importance of guiding them with safety tips, including not tampering with windows and emergency exit handrails; and getting off the bus in an orderly manner when it stops. The safety of our students is our responsibility,” the MoI said in another post.

“To safeguard our children during bus journeys, kindly educate them about essential safety measures. These include refraining from playing with windows and the emergency exit handrails, and maintaining a queue while boarding and exiting the bus,” the MoI added.

The General Directorate of Traffic on Sunday, coinciding with the start of the new school year, launched the back-to-school awareness campaign to raise awareness of traffic safety requirements and enhance adherence to traffic rules and etiquette among school students.

The MoI's campaign includes awareness activities intended for students, parents, school bus drivers and school safety officials. It focuses on aspects related to road safety and riding school buses safely, and the role of the family and school in promoting traffic safety rules.

The campaign is part of an integrated plan to ease the movement of vehicles and reduce traffic congestion on roads and around schools and roads leading to them by intensifying patrols especially at intersections and around schools that witness traffic congestion.

Officials from the Ministry of Public Health, the Trauma and Emergency Centre at Hamad General Hospital, and the General Directorate of Traffic urged all road users to adhere to traffic safety rules and requirements, stressing that preventing car accident injuries should be a priority in the minds of parents, school officials and all vehicle drivers.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change has asked schools to care for the environment, saying sustainability is not just an option but a necessity and a pioneering step that contributes to raising a generation aware of the importance of environmental preservation.

The MoECC in a post on x pointed out five steps to make schools a model of for environmental sustainability.“Activate environment activities and engage students in them; separate recyclable waste from other waste; plant trees in school yards; teach students to turn off lights and electronic devices after use; and encourage students to reduce wastage of water,” the ministry said.

In yet another post, the ministry urging students said,“As the new school year begins, let us make ourselves students who contribute positively to preserving the environment by following small steps. We can be an effective part in achieving the sustainability of our environment.

“Here are some simple steps to help us achieve that: choose a backpack made from recycled materials; purchase eco-friendly school supplies; share the new environmental knowledge you have with your classmates; and participate in environmental activities.”

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