The Project Ride programme could soon be made part of the school curriculum in a bid to get more youngsters to learn about road safety.

The plan was announced by Road Safety Council chairwoman Delcina Bean-Burrows following a story in Wednesday's Royal Gazette which revealed that the programme was being under-used.

And Mrs. Bean-Burrows added that new features to the programme could be added to make it far more comprehensive.

"I can tell you that the council is looking at the Project Ride system,'' Mrs. Bean-Burrows said.

"We would like to see it made mandatory in High Schools because we recognise that it plays a vital role in instilling good driving behaviour amongst our young licencees and that's where it all starts.

"We have spoken about how it can be beefed up with respect to the curriculum.

We want to move towards making it mandatory and if we can do that we think it will be beneficial.

"One way of doing that would be to get it put on the school curriculum or making it part of the graduation requirement so that people have to go through it before they graduate.'' Under the current system students undergo the 15-hour course in their spare time at the weekends under the supervision of a school teacher trained in instruction. Although some schools are using the scheme, it seems that teenagers in many schools do not wish to take part in the voluntary course.

"If we are saying that something is so important, that it's teaching our kids a valuable lesson, then I don't think we should be relegating it to the weekends or after school hours on a voluntary basis,'' Mrs. Bean-Burrows said.

"But we also want it to be seen as a benefit rather than be punitive, which is one of the drawbacks of making it mandatory. But anything that is voluntary is probably going to be under-utilised.'' Mrs. Bean-Burrows added that some fine tuning of the programme could also boost its appeal.

She mentioned that the administrative set-up of the scheme would have to be looked at. One CedarBridge Project Ride coordinator has criticised the administrative set-up, claiming that it was often impractical to take the course.

The content of the course is also to be examined, with a view to expanding the theory side of Project Ride.

And organisers hope to introduce road safety education at a much younger age in schools.

"The biggest message we have to get across is that we want to improve road safety but that we are not looking to penalise anybody,'' Mrs. Bean-Burrows said.

Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown said he preferred not to comment on the future of Project Ride. He said he would wait until the Road Safety Council had had an opportunity to discuss the matter and present recommendations to the Department of Transport.

But the programme has received the backing of one insurance chief.

And BF&M Customer Services' Vice President Glen Gibbons also suggested that the scheme would be more popular if held during school hours. The company offers a ten percent reduction on premiums to students who have completed the course.

"We are very much in favour and endorse any kind of road safety education,'' Mr. Gibbons said.

EDUCATION ED