Three policemen from the Ranipet traffic police station turn teachers every year, to impart knowledge about road safety to over 2,000 school students. For this purpose, they have set up a smart classroom in their police station and a traffic park around the station. This police station recently received the ISO certification for providing quality road safety awareness to students.
Meet Ranipet traffic police inspector T. Mukhesh Kumar, SSI D. Meganathan and grade 1 police constable K. Shankar, who have been conducting classes on road safety for students of Road Safety Clubs from 21 schools in their jurisdiction.
“ The police, health, highways and transport departments have to teach them 20 subjects. We teach them basic traffic rules, safety for pedestrians and cyclists, traffic violations and reasons for road accidents among other things,” said Mr. Mukesh who underwent training on road safety at the Institute of Road Transport, New Delhi
To impart the knowledge in a better manner, the policemen set up a smart class and a traffic park around the police station with the help of then Ranipet Superintendent of police A Mayilvaganan. “The smart classroom is on the first floor and there is a room full of traffic signs and rules painted on the wall. There is also a library for the students,” he added.
Mr. Mukesh said that since the police station is exclusively for traffic, unlike others which share space with the law and order police, they also set up a traffic park. “We train the children in the park and test their knowledge in the smart classroom,” said Mr. Meganathan. He said that they did not interact with the children like police personnel. “We speak to them like friends and they are able to grasp the lessons easily,” he added.
T. Kapil Dev, physical education teacher, Government Higher Secondary School, Ranipet said that this was a new experience for the children. “The atmosphere inside the station itself kindles their interest to learn,” he said.
