RTA announces Traffic Safety Award winning schools

The Roads and Transport Authority, RTA, has announced the names of the schools which have won the 2nd edition of the Traffic Safety Contest Award, launched at the beginning of the current academic year, 2013 - 2014. The Award, which was divided into three categories: General Secondary Schools, Cycle I and Cycle II, was aimed at supporting and encouraging students to think about, and engage in, traffic issues. Al Sufouh Secondary School, Dubai National Private School, and the Second of December School took the first places in the three categories of the Awards. The other awards were taken by Al Ittihad Private School at the General Secondary Schools level, whereas in Cycle II, both Islamic School for Education and Jumeirah Model School for Girls were announced as winners, and in Cycle I, Hudaybiyah School for Girls and Dubai International School both emerged as worthy winners. Maitha bin Udai, CEO of RTA's Traffic and Roads Agency, said, "The 2nd edition of the contest evoked a huge response from public and private schools in Dubai, especially after the promotional campaign conducted by the Traffic Department when the contest was launched in October last year. "The attention shown by schools management and students towards the contest is a testament to the improved awareness level of traffic-related issues, and proves our success in opening direct and effective channels with one of the key categories targeted with the traffic awareness programs," said bin Udai, who noted that the Traffic Safety Contest came to complement scores of educational programs targeting school and university students. Maitha bin Udai added, "Announcing the award-winning schools came only in the second phase of the contest since the first phase focused on publicising the contest, introducing standards, and nomination method, followed by the receiving and assessing of applications submitted for the contest. The third phase will be launched next March, where winning schools will be honoured during Gulf Traffic Week Event. "The contest targeted schools traffic awareness teams, which consist of groups of students in some schools in Dubai under the supervision of the Traffic Awareness Section at the Traffic Department. The teams are intended to prepare and organize awareness activities within schools in which they study, besides contributing to the success of the awareness activities and events carried out by the Traffic Awareness Section," continued Maitha. She added that the Agency had allocated cash prizes for winners of about AED 90,000 to be distributed among 9 winning teams in Cycle I, Cycle II and General Secondary Schools. She lauded the collaboration with the Knowledge and Human Development Authority in Dubai and the Dubai Educational Zone.