INTRODUCTION:

Children are the inheritance of God. They are like clay in potter’s hand. Handled with love and care, they become something beautiful (or) else they break (or) discarded. School children are active youngsters who receive decreasing amounts of supervision from parents and other adults. They are more prone to get accidents. Accident is unintended injury, death or property damage occurring in sequence of events. Accidents do not just happen; they are caused through thoughtlessness, carelessness, negligence and a momentary lack of concentration². Bicycle crashes are seen in children below the age group of 12. It is also seen that children between 12-15 years who experience road traffic accidents have to seek medical assistance for fractures, sprains, open wounds, etc.

A school-age child develops a sense of industry and learns the basic skills needed to function in society⁴.

During school years, co-ordination improves and a sense of balance and rhythm develops which allows children to ride two-wheeled bicycle without knowing the traffic rules and regulations. Thus they expose themselves to such hazards. They have to be taught, trained and sensitized to traffic rules and accidents¹.

Nearly 3,500 people die on the world’s roads every day. Tens of millions of people are injured or disabled every year. Children and pedestrians, cyclists and elderly are among the most vulnerable of road uses. WHO works with partner’s governmental and non-governmental around the world to raise the profile of the preventability of the road traffic injuries and promote good practices related to helmet and seat-belt wearing, not drinking and driving, not speeding and being visible in traffic³.

According to WHO 80% of all road accident deaths occur in the developing countries and nearly half in the Asia-pacific region. India account for about 10% of road accident fatalities worldwide. As estimated 1,275,000 persons are grievously injured on the road every year⁴.

The prevalence of all injury among all groups was 30.6% in the last year in puducherry. Enhancing road safety is a complex task that we all should shoulder the responsibility to achieve the success in this area.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

“A pre-experimental study to assess the effectiveness of video teaching programme on road safety among the middle school children of government middle school at , Kirumampakkam, Puducherry.”

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

· To determine the existing level of knowledge of school children regarding road safety through pre test.

· To assess the level of knowledge of school children regarding road safety after the administration of video teaching program through post test.

· To compare the pre test and post test knowledge scores an d to determine the effectiveness of video teaching program on road safety.

· To findout the association between the selected demographic variables and the knowledge of school children regarding road safety.

RESEARCH APPROACH:

The research approach used for this study is quantitative approach.

RESEARCH DESIGN:

A pre experimental design has been chosen for this study. One group pretest and posttest observation has been made before and after the video teaching program among the samples.

The diagrammatic representation of research design is given below.

Group Pre video teaching Post

test programme test

Day -1 Day-2 Day-9

Experimental X 0 X1

KEY:

X: Assessment of knowledge on road safety (pretest).

0: Video teaching programme.

X1: Assessment of knowledge on road safety (posttest).

SETTING OF THE STUDY:

The study is conducted in Government Middle School Kirumambakkam, Puducherry.

POPULATION:

The target population selected for this study includes 7^th and 8^th standard children at the age group of 12 and 13 years. The total population of the Government Middle School, Kirumambakkam is the 7^th and 8^th standard population is 350.

SAMPLE:

The sample selected for the present study is 60 children from Government Middle School, Kirumambakkam, Puducherry.

CRITERIA FOR SAMPLE COLLECTION:

INCLUSION CRITERIA:

· Children who are studying in 7^th and 8^th standard.

· Children who are present on the day of the study.

· Children who are willing to participate in this study.

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

· Children who are physically and mentally challenged.

· Children who have attended previous teaching programme regarding road safety.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE:

The samples were selected for this study by probability simple random sampling technique.

DEVELOPMENT OF INSTRUMENT:

The research instrument was developed in English after an extensive review of literature and experts opinion. It was translated into Tamil by a language expert. The structured self administrated questionnaire is used to access the knowledge of the students on road safety.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INSTRUMENT:

The instrument consists of two parts

Part – I: Consists of demographic variables of school children (standard of education, means of transport, education of the father, education of the mother, income of the family, etc)

Part – II: The structured self administrated questionnaire consists of 25 multiple choice questions to access the knowledge on road safety.

SCORING PROCEDURE:

Part – I: Information on demographic data was collected from the selected school children on given demographic variables and coding was used for descriptive analysis.

Part – II: It consists 25 multiple choice question. School children were asked to go through the questions and give their answers for each question. Each correct answer was given a score of ‘one’ and wrong answer was given a score of ‘zero’.

Scoring was

<50% - Inadequate knowledge

50 - <75% - Moderately Adequate Knowledge

>=75% - Adequate Knowledge

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

TABLE 1: Frequency and percentage distribution of school children with their selected demographic variables N=0

S.N	DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES	N	%
1.	Standard of education	25	41.7%
	a) 7^th standard	35	58.3%
	b) 8^th standard
2.	Residential area
	a) Rural	45	75%
	b) Urban	15	25%
3.	Means of transport
	a) Bus	17	28.3%
	b) Motor cycle	10	16.7%
	c) Cycle	9	15%
	d) Pedestrian	24	40%
4.	Educational status of the father
	a) Illiterate	9	15%
	b) Primary education	19	21%
	c) Secondary education	27	45%
	d) Graduate	5	8.3%
5.	Previous information regarding road safety
	a) Yes	29	48.3%
	b) No	31	51.7%

Table 1 shows that among 60 students most of the students 35 (58.3%) students were from 8^th standard and remaining 25(41.7%) students were from 7^th standard. Regarding residential area most of them 45 (75%) students were living in rural area and 15 (25%) students were living in urban area. With regard to means of transport 40% (24) of the students were pedestrian and 16.7% (10) of the students were coming to school by motor cycle. Regarding educational status of the father most the students 27(45%) father had the secondary school educational qualification and 9(15%) students father were illiterate. with regard to previous information on road safety most of the students have not received any information on road safety.

SECTION II

ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE ON ROAD SAFETY AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN.

TABLE 2: Distribution of level of knowledge on road safety among school children during pre and post test.

SL.NO.	LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE	PRE TEST		POST TEST
SL.NO.	LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE	N	%	n	%
1.	Inadequate knowledge	29	48.3	3	5
2.	Moderately Adequate knowledge	20	33.3	24	40
3.	Adequate knowledge	11	18.3	33	55

Table 2 shows that distribution of level of knowledge on road safety among school children during pre and post test. Out of 60 samples, most of them 29(48.3%) had inadequate knowledge, 20(33.3%) had moderately adequate knowledge and 11(18.3%) had adequate knowledge in pre test and in post test most of them 33(55%) had adequate knowledge, 24(40%) had moderately adequate knowledge and only 3(5%) had inadequate knowledge. It was inferred that most of the school children had inadequate knowledge in pre test and most of the school children had adequate knowledge and moderately adequate knowledge in post test.

Fig.1 Distribution of level of knowledge on road safety among school children during pre and post test.

SECTION IV

TABLE 4: Association between the knowledge on road safety among school children with their selected demographic variables.

Sl.no.	Demographic variables	Moderately adequate knowledge		Inadequate knowledge		chi square value (df)	P value
1.	Standard of education	n	%	n	%	0.323 (2)	0.851 NS
	a)7^th standard	9	50%	11	37.9%
	b)8^th standard	11	55%	18	62.1%
2.	Residential Area	n	%	n	%	4.497(2)	0.106 NS
	a)Rural	14	17 %	20	69%
	b)Urban	6	30.0%	9	31%
3.	Means of transport	n	%	n	%	12.937(6)	0.044* S
	a)Bus	3	15%	9	31%
	b)Motor cycle	4	20%	5	17.2%
	c)Cycle	1	5%	8	27.6%
	d)Pedestrian	12	60%	7	24.1%
4.	Education of father	n	%	n	%	5.645(6)	0.464 NS
	e) Illiterate	2	10 %	6	20.7%
	f) Primary education	4	20%	10	34.5%
	g) Secondary education	12	60%	10	34.5%
	h) Graduate	2	10%	3	10.3%
5.	Previous information on road safety	n	%	n	%	1.615(2)	0.446 NS
	a)yes	10	50 %	12	41.4%
	b) no	10	50%	17	58.6%

Table 4 shows that regarding standard of education t he obtained chi square value was 0.323 and p = 0.851.It is not significant at p<0.05% level. It was inferred that there is no significant association between the knowledge on road safety with standard of education of the children. With regard to residential area the obtained chi square value was 4.497 and p = 0.106. It is not significant at p<0.05% level. It was inferred that there is no significant association between the knowledge on road safety with residential area of the children. Regarding means of transport the obtained chi square value was 12.937 and p = 0.044. It is significant at p<0.05% level. It was inferred that there is significant association between the knowledge on road safety with means of transportation of the children.

DISCUSSION:

This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of video assisted teaching programme on the level of knowledge on road safety among selected middle school children, Government middle school, Kirumampakkam, Puducherry. The study revealed that the mean pre test score was 13.18 and post test score was 19.10,it was higher than the pre test. The standard deviation of pre test knowledge score 4.990 and post test knowledge score 3.198. The obtained ‘t’ value was 16.058. It was highly significant at p<0.05% level. So the stated research hypotheses was accepted. The findings of this study was supported by Ms. Jijimol Mathew (2006) conducted a study on “teaching regarding road traffic accidents for school children” in St. Johns Medical college among 60 school children in Bangalore. The result revealed that none of them had excellent knowledge in pre test, after the teaching programme, most of them (53%) had excellent knowledge in post test.

CONCLUSION:

The present study was conducted regarding video teaching programme on road safety among middle school students . From that 48.3% of students had inadequate knowledge regarding road safety in pretest. . This showed that students were not aware about the road safety. Video teaching programme was conducted to the students, to create awareness on road safety, out of 60 students , 55% students were had adequate knowledge,40% were had moderately adequate knowledge,5% were had inadequate knowledge after administering video assisted teaching programme. It showed the video teaching programme was effective.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

· Similar kind of the study can be conducted among different population in different settings and in larger groups.

· A descriptive study can be conducted on knowledge and attitude regarding road safety.

REFERENCES:

1) Marlow. Textbook of Paediatric Nursing. Sixth edition. Elsevier publications; 2000.

2) Wong’s. Essentials of Paediatric Nursing. Seventh edition. Elsevier publications;1998.

3) Rune Elvik ,et.al. The hand book of road safety measures; 2009. Available from: http://www.wudplay.com

4) Dinesh Sethi. European report on child injury prevention; 2008. Available from: http:// www.peeplo.com

5) Alena Hoye. Keeping children safe in traffic; 2004. Available from: http://www.signssandmedia.in

Received on 31.07.2014 Modified on 20.08.2014

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research 2(3): July- Sept. 2014; Page 206-209