On 25 February 2019, in Primary School 12 in Gdansk Ujeścisko the directors of ten Gdańsk schools met with the Mayor of Gdansk Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, deputy mayor of Gdańsk Piotr Grzelak and members of the team taking part in the project of certification safety around schools in Gdansk.
“We have started a pilot project, to which ten Gdansk schools have been selected. The project is mainly aimed at improving the safety of pupils coming to schools on foot and by bicycle. The project was announced in autumn last year and is in line with the strategic documents of the City of Gdańsk” - says Aleksandra Dulkiewicz.
Schools that were selected as pilot schools are located in different city districts, they differ in the size and conditions of infrastructure.
“We met with the directors of schools participating in the pilot program, with whom we want to implement the program in the interest of children's safety - explains Piotr Grzelak, deputy mayor of Gdańsk. We use the experience of partner cities from Europe: Italian Reggio Emilia, Dutch Utrecht or Spanish Girona. In our city, we will carry out an audit, which will include behaviour on how students reach the school, and why such means of transport and whether there are infrastructure solutions that are worth implementing to improve this security. We want to make sure that it is safe to come to school and that security is constantly increasing” .
A team of experts will record current state of the art and what could be improved to reach schools. The summary will be a Report with recommendations, which will be finalized in June 2019. The recommendations will be implemented from September and on the basis of the Report the City of Gdansk will prepare the Local Action Plan.
