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When you’re a teenager, learning how to drive a car for the first time is a rite of passage that can seem intimidating, more so when you’re sharing the roads with drivers of all ages and experience.
While it’s mandatory to accumulate at least 50 hours of supervised driving, depending on where you live, before going for your P-plate test, some learner drivers have undertaken extra hours and run up more kilometres on the odometer by the time they’re allowed to take the driving test.
Generally speaking, the bad habit is common in Australia, but it does have serious repercussions when learners haven’t acquired the necessary road safety skills that come with the experience of driving with a supervisor.
According to the Department of Infrastructure and Transport, in the 12 months leading up to March 2025, 100 drivers aged between 17 to 25 years old lost their lives on Australian roads, with New South Wales, Victoria, and the Northern Territory among the states hit hardest.
Which begs the question: Should Australia introduce driver training in high schools?
Driver Dynamics's Kevin Flynn, an advanced driving instructor with more than 30 years of experience, said “Driving is such an important life skill; the earlier kids start learning about driving, vehicle handling skills, safe driving practices, the better”.
However, the driving instructor acknowledged the biggest challenge “is that the learning needs to be of the best quality, and uniform from one school to the other”.
“There is no current standard, so we would need to establish that.
“Classes conducted by qualified, experienced teachers could be of immense benefit and could include understanding defensive principles, basic vehicle dynamics, particularly in emergency situations, and correct systems of driving. [It] lays down a great foundation,” Flynn told Drive.
While the Department of Education acknowledged it “plays a leadership role in setting and advocating national priorities in school education”, the decision to introduce driver courses in the high school curriculum rests with “the state and territory governments and non-government school authorities”.
At present, some states like Victoria and New South Wales do teach some form of road education, but they mainly cover what contributes to road fatalities, such as distracted driving and excessive speeding. However, they don’t physically teach students how to drive a car.
For Victorian high school students, a Department of Education spokesperson said driver education and road safety are “linked to multiple Victorian curriculum areas such as Legal Studies, Health, Civics and English”.
To offer some guidance, Victoria offers an activity-based driving course dubbed the Road Smart Interactive at various high schools across the state.
The program was developed by the Transport Accident Commission and is open to Year 9 students and above, where they’re taught road safety skills that mitigate the likelihood of fatalities through modern technologies such as virtual reality.
“We are committed to giving our most vulnerable road users the skills they need before getting behind the wheel – so we have safer behaviours, and fewer accidents and fatalities involving young drivers,” a Department of Education Victoria spokesperson told Drive.
But it's worth noting that other countries like the United States and Canada offer some form of driver training in various states and cities, depending on the school.
According to the media outlet US News, these classes generally involve 30 hours of classroom learning and “at least six hours of behind-the-wheel training, with additional hours of observation”.
Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.
