An education programme specially designed to teach children good citizenship, civic values and ultimately road and street safety is to be rolled out across schools in the municiplaity of Orihuela. The scheme is part of a broader, joint-initiaitive between Orihuela Town Hall the RACC automobile association.
More than 1,100 students from 14 schools will participate in recreational and adventure activities as part of the Education Program for Mobility (PEM), which will be held from 1 to 19 February in schools in the city and on the coast inculding Los Dolses.
The main objective of the education programme is to achieve an increasing level of safe travel through education and values from childhood into adulthood. The theory is that educating children in road and driver safety will help to reduce accidents and those accidents of future drivers.
The RACC Foundation-designed programme is the equivalent of 45 classes of primary education and the activities undertaken range from watching videos on Road Safety to interactive games including a CD-ROM. The PEM also has an interdisciplinary character and has been designed so that teachers can approach the issue of road safety using many of the materials and subjects that are normally taught.

The Department of Education and Training at the RACC Foundation approaches road safety education from a holistic perspective. Its programme is founded on involvement with school, family environment, media, social groups and security forces. The programme centres on continuing education throughout life, which should begin in the family and school environments and later complemented and strengthened through driving school and safe driving courses.
The planned Education Program for Orihuela schools combines these concepts and develops a series of activities aimed at learning the basics of road safety, but also aimed at encouraging discussion and reflection. During 2009, the Education Program has reached 30,000 students in Spain, throughout 218 schools in Andalusia, Valencia, Murcia, Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Aragon, Madrid and Galicia. This initiative began in 1994 when the Department of Education and Training of the RACC Foundation began developing the Road Education Program, which was the predecessor of the current program.
For eight years the initial programme gave nearly 150,000 children their first contact with the world of road safety. Alongside the development of the schools programme, the Foundation has initiaited a number of training activities including collaborating with governments on developing information campaigns and the introduction of road safety in higher education.