Safety education in Maltese primary state schools

Abstract

The central theme of this study is safety education: the need to educate individuals to take healthy risk decisions and prevent accidents, which are a betrayal to our society. Focusing on sixty-six primary state-run schools, the study reveals that safety education is scantily disseminated and even though school children do learn some safety rules, safe behaviour is poor. Sex and regional difference in safety education attained was investigated, yielding weak but statistical significant results. A poor national attitude to safety is also reflected in the primary schools' physical environment. Simultaneously, the lack of safety education and unsafe school environments are leading to a high prevalence of serious accidents amongst primary school children, with a statistical significant higher boy involvement. The study recommends: environmental, legal and educational measures that can be taken to improve this situation, with the greatest emphasis placed on the education process.