The Rawalpindi traffic police department distributed a children’s colouring booklet in a local school on Wednesday as part of its efforts to create awareness of traffic rules, sign and signals among the kindergarten students.
The department said around 60-70 books along with colour pencils and chocolates were distributed among children between the ages of two to four years old during the first phase.
The seven-page booklet includes signs and activities and children can add the corresponding colour to those designs. It also includes a maze and images of traffic lights, stop lights, road walking procedures, and zebra crossing. The department said it intends to pick a school every week where they would distribute the seven-page booklet.
The department said the booklet was developed by their education wing on a ‘self-help basis’.
Read: Traffic police introduce e-licence app
Rawalpindi City Traffic Officer Taimoor Khan, who distributed the booklets, said children should be taught traffic signs and norms from an early age through colouring books and playgroups.
“Soon, the book will undergo more improvements and be modified for kids at the primary level,” he said. Khan added that teaching about traffic signs and laws should be made part of the curriculum. The department said the books were provided free-of-charge, after the approval of Punjab police chief Usman Anwar and Traffic Additional IG Farhan Baig.
As per the department, each booklet costs approximately Rs120. The cost of colour boxes and other giveaways was said to be separate.
When self-help isn’t the way
The attempt by the Rawalpindi police to educate children about traffic rules and regulations is a welcome step and deserves commendation. Traffic safety is essential and needs to be hammered into young minds to avert tragedies.
However, it makes no sense to add the photos of police officers, no less on the front page of the booklet. The information and images do not help the nursery students and seems to have been added for the gratification of the officers in question: Usman Kakar, Farhan Baig and Taimoor Khan.
The aesthetics are further compromised by the background image and drawing, which are not localised and key elements covered by the department’s excessive branding.
The rest of the drawings have also been taken from the internet, including those with copyright and reproduced without attribution. For instance, the zebra crossing image was made by a school teacher from Queens, New York.
The department says the booklet was developed on a self-help basis. Maybe that is not the best of ideas going forward and the department should consider professionals when developing the booklet for students of older age groups.
Even when targeting younger students, aesthetics and typography are important.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 30th, 2023.
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