The Learner Driver Support Programme (LDSP) is an initiative by the Department of Transport in partnership with the Department of Basic Education to introduce road safety education as part of the life skills curriculum at schools. Launched in 2010, the programme aims to assist Grade 11 learners to acquire learner's and driver's licences before exiting the school system.
The programme forms part of a broader campaign to create road safety awareness and introduce driving as part of skills development. It is linked to other efforts aimed at reducing the number of accidents and fatalities on the country's roads. Reducing the number of accidents is central to the initiative and that can only be achieved through safe and competent drivers. This project also serves as an advocacy exercise aimed at inculcating a culture of road safety awareness and safe driving behaviour among young people.
It is piloted at four schools in the Tshwane Metropolitan and Nokeng Tsa Taemane District Municipalities with the objective of reaching all secondary schools in the province. To date, more than three hundred learners have registered for the programme and two hundred have been successfully tested and went on to acquire their learner's licenses.
The programme's objectives include the following:
- To prepare high school learners to obtain driver's licenses by assisting them to acquire learner licences and undertake driving lessons
- To instil a culture of road safety at critical level of learners' development
- To create road safety awareness through education and stress the importance of acquiring
- Drivers' licenses legally
- To enable learners with drivers license to be economically active post matriculation
- To create job opportunities by training hundred driver instructors to oversee training.
Source: Gauteng Roads and Transport
