Unlike America and most European countries which allow people to get their driver's license at the age of 16, South African legislation insists on an age restriction of 18. Fortunately though most students in South Africa finish their high school careers at the age of 17 or 18 which makes it possible for some learners to acquire a license in their final year of school. A question that arose as a result of this was why the Department of Education does not collaborate with the Department of Transport to implement driving as a subject in the curriculum of the matric school system? Surely this would reduce the problems affecting the licensing system drastically?
Our group put our heads together and headed for the Rossburgh Testing Centre to find out what they thought of the idea. By chance we had met a Mr. Ncobeni, a teacher from a Durban High School who had come with his students to try and help them through the sometimes complicated process of obtaining their licenses. He had brought in a group of about 20-30 learners in their matric year,between the ages 18-20, who have been taking driving lessons at their school with a car that was donated by a certain company.
Mr Ncobeni went on to explain the motive behind his enthusiasm for the project. He mentioned that his aim is to give the boys a stepping stone into the "real world" as they are about to leave the comfort of a sheltered life in school and into the demanding world of university and work. The driving lesson project which is done purely for the benefit of the students, is a free service from the school and has been in practice for approximately 4 years. Mr. Ncobeni also made sure to mention that the traffic department at Rossburgh has been a great help in the project.
While he was enthusiastic about the project at their school, he expressed concerns at the idea of implementing driving as part of the school curriculum, stating that this could possibly hurt the business of driving schools in Durban because the number of customers they teach would drop.
To our surprise, the boys from Durban High School were against the idea of obtaining a license at age 16 reasoning that at that age, people are not mature enough to handle the responsibility of driving a car and so 18 is still the ideal age. However, they expressed optimism that adding driving lessons to the school curriculum would work well because it would help reduce the stress of having to queue at traffic departments and would also simplify the process.
Inspector K. Naidoo, chief inspector at Rossburgh, when interviewed, added that driving in schools (though not necessarily part of the curriculum) is beginning to increase. According to our source, the Minister of Transport will choose about 200 worthy schools whereby students in their matric year are taught how to drive and helped in obtaining their licenses free of charge. He declined to mention what criteria would be used to choose these schools but we feel that this is a step in the right direction.
Interviewers- Matalimo Selebalo
Jeofrey Zharare
Editors- Seetha Supersad
Thabane Dube
posted by This Eye @ 2:44 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home