Since early March 2014 Fumiyo Kagawa and David Selby of Sustainability Frontiers have been involved in developing a training program on school disaster management for Pakistan. Working with Save the Children in Sindh Province and Hope 87 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, they have developed a program with a common model but with provincially contextualized elements.
The training program in each province follows the cascade approach with, first, Save the Children and Hope 87 teams providing a five-day training for trainers from each Provincial Institute of Teacher Education (PITE). These then cascade the same five-day training down to trainers at district department of education level who, in turn, offer a two-day training to teachers in schools who will take responsibility for driving forward disaster management in their own school primarily through the mobilization of an overseeing and orchestrating School Disaster Management Committee. At district level Executive District Officers and Assistant District Officers are designated to join the training given their responsibility for developing and driving forward education development plans and school improvement plans and for education budgets.
Fumiyo and David have developed:
- A Trainer’s Manual to guide trainers in facilitating the five-day PITE and district department training, and to guide district trainers in facilitating the two-day teacher training
- Participatory activities, handouts and PowerPoint sets for all the training
- A Teacher’s Manual to guide and assist teachers back in school as they drive forward school disaster management developments
Both the training programs and the teacher manual adopt an ‘eight-stage journey’ for school-based disaster management:
- Step 1: Orientation and Sensitization of the School Community
- Step 2: Formation of the School Disaster Management Committee
- Step 3: Conducting a Risk Assessment of the School
- Step 4: Developing the School-Based Disaster Management Plan
- Step 5: Developing an Education Continuity Plan (i.e. to ensure learning continuity following an emergency or disaster)
- Step 6: Conducting Mock Drills and Evacuation Simulations
- Step 7: Mobilizing the School as a Disaster Management Learning Organization
- Step 8: Mobilizing the School as a Disaster Risk Reduction Community Hub
The cascade of training programs is to begin in both provinces in June 2014 with teachers implementing disaster management in their schools during the 2014/15 school year. Following any adjustments found to be necessary in the manuals, bespoke versions are to be developed by Save the Children and Hope 87 for other provinces of Pakistan and, probably, for jurisdictions in neighboring countries.