CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN DEVELOPING TRAFFIC CONTENT IN PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHING

Every day, many children in the Republic of Croatia cross the road, ride a bicycle or sit in a tram — and they do it without formal traffic education that would go beyond memorizing traffic signs. The subject of Technical Culture is one of the rare places in primary school education where pupils not only learn traffic rules but also apply them with their hands and feet: they build intersections, set up signs, simulate situations and make decisions. However, currently, traffic safety content is placed in one class and within a limited timetable, which leaves no space for the systematic development of competences and repetition in different contexts. The new amendments and additions to the curriculum proposal — in the context of all-day school project — opens space for this potential to finally be fully exploited. However, obstacles ranging from the different availability of school premises to the lack of traffic polygons among schools await teachers and children in implementing traffic content. As part of the research conducted for the purposes of this paper, data was collected on spatial conditions and the availability of school areas for implementing traffic content in Technical Culture classes. A total of 523 completed questionnaires were received, covering main and branch schools from different parts of Croatia, which provided insight into the actual working conditions in schools of different sizes, spatial capabilities and geographical locations.