Last month, 18 schools from Phnom Penh, Kandal, and Kampong Speu completed disseminating road safety messages as part of a “schools of excellence” competition to raise road safety awareness.

Throughout the year, school groups arranged road safety murals and distributed materials to help improve road safety behavior and their school’s surrounding infrastructure. To take part in the competition, students and teachers received road safety education training.

In August, an award committee, comprised of representatives from the National Road Safety Committee, National Police, Ministry of Education, and AIP Foundation evaluated the 18 schools. The committee reviewed relevant documents and interviewed teachers and students. Afterwards, the committee surveyed the area around the school to observe school murals, the surrounding infrastructure, and safety materials available for students to cross the road. After gathering the necessary information, the committee will provide information to AIP Foundation to determine the outstanding school in each participating province and to track its progress the following year. Evaluating successful schools is important in developing improved implementation guidelines and to determine best practices in order to cultivate safe road environments for all students.