Come next year, student drivers will be required to take an additional test. This test, Kingson Jean, Public Relations Officer of the National Association of Driving Schools (NADS) stated, will require students to demonstrate whether they’ve understood simple vehicle maintenance.
According to Jean, The National Association of Driving Schools welcomes this latest addition and believes that students “should know the vehicle they’re driving and how to do basic maintenance of that vehicle- how to check the oil, how to check the coolant level, what could be causing leaks and things of that sort.”
“If vehicles are not maintained properly… it will cause collisions which will cause traffic back up due to (them) breaking down, so this is a very good initiative from the Ministry of Transport particularly the Examination Unit,” Jean told THE VOICE this week.
With regards to the ‘Show Me’ aspect where students are required to show examiners “how to use different gadgets in the vehicle, for example putting on the rear demister, putting on the headlights and things of that sort, we think that’s also a very great idea because some students wouldn’t learn to drive in the day and as a result they never really get to use the lights properly or as often as they should. Some drive and it never rains (when) they’re driving so they don’t really know how to use the wiper blades.”
He also noted that some instructors have already started teaching basic vehicle maintenance- however, the ‘Show Me, Tell Me’ aspect will ensure that all instructors teach the basics.
“We have some instructors who teach those things all the time (like) how to change your tyre, how to check your vehicle properly- basic car maintenance, but not all instructors do since it was not inculcated into the criteria for the practical exam. Now that it is, they would have to teach you those things so we will have a more educated public… more educated vehicle owners,” Jean said.
Over the years, he stated, examiners have recognized that certain students are not able to use “certain components… for example (when) they’re doing a practical exam and it begins to rain … although they will teach them… they would forget…. they (examiners) recognize that (students) don’t even know how to put on the wiper blades; sometimes they don’t know how to demist the vehicle and things of that sort so that examiner is going to ensure that they ask questions during the practical exam. They’ll keep on reeducating students as to how to use those things or have them (practice) even if it is not raining.”