Disaster Preparedness in School

Disaster Preparedness in BAF Shaheen College, Kurmitol

Preparedness refers to a very concrete research-based set of actions that are taken as precautionary measures in the face of potential disasters. For the example community based disaster preparedness, earthquake preparedness, school preparedness etc. Vulnerability in this context can be defined as the diminished capacity of an individual or group to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural or man-made hazard. Bangladesh is a disaster prone country for its geographical location. Every year we face floods and sometimes small earthquake. In urban areas people face a man- made disaster which is fire. For the example, in July 25,2017 the fire that broke out at the ninth floor of the Janata Tower at Motijheel. So, it is important to know about our hazards in a particular area and also vulnerability.

During any disasters, schools are most vulnerable because, during the Haiti earthquake in 2010 about 4,000 schools were damaged or destroyed and in the 2015 Nepal earthquake where more than 27,000 classrooms were fully destroyed (Paci-Green et al., 2015). More recently during the July 2016 Monsoon flooding more than 1500 schools have been affected by the floods in northern Bangladesh.

Current disaster preparedness in my school:

The name of my school is B A F Shaheen College ,Kurmitola. It is situated at Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka – 1206.It was established in 1972 named “B A F High School” and next time it changed its name. it was replaced from one place to another. It is situated at just besides the airport. In second world war it was an army camp and without rebuilt or pilling this school was establishing. It is vulnerable that’s why comparatively small classes held on the upper floor to prevent the collapse of this building.

• ·         In 2005, there was an earthquake drill when I was read in class 3.

• ·         In 2017, there was an earthquake drill held in my school. (interview) 

• ·         In 2018 July there was a fire drill. (interview)

• ·         For fire safety every classes have a fire slender but student doesn’t know how to use it and besides every classes there is a bucket full of sand.

• ·         Only scout student knows about disaster but their preparedness is not very strong.

• ·         They don’t know about their evacuation route if earthquake occur.

• ·         There is no plan or policy for disaster preparedness in the upper level.

• ·         There is no subject or they don’t include any curriculum for disaster preparedness.

• ·         There is no first aid kid in classes.

•       Some of the student know how to use first aid kid bit maximum student don’t know how to use it. 

Why school is important for disaster preparedness?

In Dhaka, earthquakes of a strong magnitude can have overwhelming, irreversible consequences, serious injury and disruption of building operations, catastrophic damage including structural collapse and massive loss of life. Schools form one of the main public spaces in any community. They are important centers for imparting knowledge and education. They are not normally considered a first priority while rendering structural preparedness measures for buildings.

Kashmir earthquake occurred in 2005, about 75,000 people died in that time, due to the collapse of schools building about 19,000 children were died. In three years later, 9.0 and 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit sichuna, china killing more than 5,000 students and thousands of classrooms were collapsed.

• ·         School plays a versatile role in communities. If a disaster occurs in a school, our quality of education is affected and learning environment gets destroyed. These impacts have long term effects on communities.

• ·         School preparedness is important because children pass their maximum time on school.

• ·         Children are the good medium to pass massages on safety, hygiene etc. to their parents and also community.

• ·         It is common for a student to leave their school after the disaster. So, disaster has great impact on school and our education. Some of the cases most of the parents don’t agreed to send their children back to the unsafe environment.

In Bangladesh almost all the school are already located in disaster prone areas. In 1970 cyclone, 900 educational institutions were damaged. In Bangladesh 63 million children are physically and socially vulnerable. So school preparedness is important to build a disaster resilient community.