Our School, Our Safety: Learning Responsibility Beyond the Classroom
In September 2025, my class — 11 AICE C at Mallya Aditi International School — stepped out of our classrooms and into a community that challenged us to rethink what “learning” truly means. Over the course of a week, we participated in the SUPW (Socially Useful and Productive Work) Road Safety Program, titled Our School, Our Safety, in partnership with PotHoleRaja and the Mobility Agenda Foundation (RASTEP).
What began as a structured school programme quickly became an experience rooted in responsibility, adaptability, and human connection.
From Awareness to Action
Our work focused on the area surrounding the Government Higher Primary School in Palanhallihalli, Bengaluru, where unsafe road conditions posed daily risks to young students. After intensive training sessions on defensive driving, road safety audits, first aid, CPR, and the Golden Hour, we were tasked with translating theory into tangible impact.
As a class of around 25 students, we worked directly on the ground to:
- Repair dangerous potholes near the school — the most urgent and physically demanding part of the project
- Install road signage such as School Ahead, Go Slow, and Speed Limit (20 km/h) boards
- Paint and clean speed breakers
- Install cat eyes (road studs) to increase visibility and alert drivers that they were entering a school zone
These changes were small in scale but significant in consequence. The roads the children crossed daily were visibly safer by the end of the week.
Student to Student: Teaching Road Safety Where It Matters Most
One of the most meaningful aspects of the programme was our collaboration with the government school students themselves. Rather than teaching at them, we worked with them.
We split into four mixed groups, each responsible for creating and performing a short skit on road safety. These plays — written and scripted by us — used simple English, basic Kannada, and some Hindi, ensuring the message was accessible and engaging. The students acted alongside us, learning through participation rather than instruction.
This approach transformed road safety from a set of rules into a lived understanding. The children asked questions, improvised lines, and took pride in performing for their peers. Their enthusiasm made it clear that learning is most powerful when it is shared.
Navigating Challenges Beyond the Task List
The experience was not without challenges. For many of us, including myself, language was the most immediate barrier. Communicating ideas in broken Kannada required patience, creativity, and humility. Gestures, demonstrations, and mutual effort bridged gaps that words could not.
Another challenge was responsibility. A small group of us — five students, including me — were entrusted with documenting the programme’s impact through photographs, videos, and interviews. This meant balancing physical work with observation, storytelling, and ethical representation.
Interviewing the children was especially eye-opening. Hearing them describe how potholes affected their daily commute — missed school days, injuries, fear — gave context to the labour we were doing. The documentation was no longer just visual; it became a record of voices that are rarely amplified.
Community Response and Reflection
The response from the local community was quietly affirming. Parents, residents, and passers-by expressed gratitude, often stopping to ask what we were doing and why. The school principal personally thanked us for investing time and effort into the safety of her students.
By the end of the week, what stayed with me was not just the infrastructure we helped improve, but the shift in perspective it created. Road safety stopped being an abstract civic issue and became a human one — tied to education, equity, and access.
What This Experience Taught Me
SUPW is often described as a curricular requirement, but this programme went far beyond that. It taught me:
- That impact is built through collaboration, not individual effort
- That meaningful service requires listening before acting
- That leadership can mean documenting, enabling, and amplifying others rather than standing at the front
Most importantly, it reinforced the idea that learning does not end at the classroom door. Sometimes, it begins on uneven roads, in unfamiliar languages, and through conversations that challenge comfort.
Our School, Our Safety was not just a project — it was a lesson in responsibility, empathy, and the power of collective action.