Disaster Education
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Disaster Education Building Research Institute (BRI) National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) 2007 Disaster Education Building Research Institute (BRI) National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) 2007 Foreword Education and public awareness are the cornerstone of approaches aimed at reducing vulnerabilities to natural hazards. The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters, adopted at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction, highlights knowledge and education as one of the five main priorities of action. Attention should be accorded, and support given to efforts targeting schoolchildren and youth with the aim of making people more aware of the threat of hazards and of the need and possibility to become better prepared before disasters strike. As we progress into the implementation of both the Hyogo Framework and the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD, 2005-2014), the pride of place that the international community, national academic institutions and educational establishments concerned with disaster risk reduction are giving to education is based on evidence that education contributes towards the knowledge and skills essential for disaster preparedness. The project which was carried out on Disaster Education by the Building Research Institute (BRI) and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Japan is a timely and pioneering initiative. It proved to be a valuable effort to take stock of the status of education and disaster risk reduction worldwide and to review information collected, thus laying the foundations for refining future orientations in the integration of disaster preparedness into educational programmes. As the lead agency for the DESD and a primary partner of the United Nations Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction in the 2006-2007 World Campaign "Disaster risk reduction begins at school”, UNESCO welcomes the initiative of BRI and GRIPS. The Organization, which has accompanied this exciting research project, sees in it a flagship activity of the above- mentioned Campaign. At the dawn of what promises to be a new phase of emphasis on education and knowledge for disaster risk reduction, this publication you are about to read provides a significant resource which will guide stakeholders interested in education and disaster risk reduction. Badaoui Rouhban Chief Section for Disaster Reduction UNESCO, Paris Preface “We must, above all, shift from a culture of reaction to a culture of prevention. Prevention is not only more humane than cure; it is also much cheaper.... Above all, let us not forget that disaster prevention is a moral imperative, no less than reducing the risks of war.” -Kofi Annan, Former Secretary General of the United Nations (Strategy for a Safer World in the 21st Century: Disaster and Risk Reduction, Geneva, July 9, 1999) It is increasingly acknowledged that disasters are the result of natural and social processes. Unlike the natural conditions that have potential of hazards, social dimension of the disaster risk is much to do with what human being interacts with natures. Hence, human behavior is the crucial factor in the degree of vulnerability and the likelihood of disasters taking place. Here, education (knowledge) plays a significant role in society. Since disasters are infrequent in nature and memories are short in terms of passing knowledge from one generation to another, there is a need to promote culture of prevention. The misconception about disasters as nature’s curse or divine’s force till recent time is also a barrier in changing mindset of people towards safety culture. Here, only the educational reform can change this status quo and promote the disaster prevention practice. The necessity of integration of the disaster safety concept in all forms of daily life is an obvious condition to achieve the goal of disaster reduction. It requires that the disaster risk reduction knowledge should be as a built-in component of knowledge block. Disaster awareness needs to be part of every individual’s cultural heritage and the development of such attitudes should be encouraged in early childhood. Only schools give this opportunity to implant that culture to entire future citizens. As disaster risk management should be everybody’s business, children of today must be appropriately educated and adequately trained to face the disaster risks that may be realized in the future in the wake of prevailing natural hazard potential. A new culture of disaster prevention will have to be created in the home, in school, in the workplace and in society in general. The education to build up this new culture for disaster reduction must be permanent and integrative, and cut across all formal and informal educational efforts in close contact with reality. It is unfortunate, however, that the concept of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) education which is rather new, carried out with the notion of disaster professionals as “expert,” who presents the technical facts, figures, and analysis to the “ignorant” citizens. This has arisen out of a top-down approach to disaster awareness and education that gives DO’s and Don’t-DO’s prescriptions for ordinary people. However, to be effective and integrating, it must go beyond the purely informative or instructive, and promote a new way of perceiving, feeling, thinking and behaving. It must open the way to a new lifestyle integrating the individual, the environment and society. The goal of education efforts is to change people’s behavior. Disaster education attempts to increase protective actions by people by presenting information about the hazard and the risk it poses. If planned effectively and well implemented, it will make, in long run, people habituate safety practice in all forms of their action. Similar to the common public health matters, citizen should be able to practice basic precautionary and remedy measures by themselves leaving only specific and more detail information to ask to experts and professionals. However, the desired changes in behavior may take long time. Considering the education as an excellent opportunity for building awareness about disaster mitigation and for implementing a variety of activities that can minimize the negative impacts of disasters in all sectors, efforts are made to integrate DRR in education system in many countries recently. Recognizing that disaster education can play a significant role to raise awareness among the people and to enhance capability of experts as well, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan, has initiated in 2005 a master degree program on “Earthquake Disaster Mitigation,” jointly with Building Research Institute (BRI) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Before 2005, BRI had been implementing a training course on seismology and earthquake engineering, which was upgraded to the master program. In line with their program, GRIPS and BRI conducted a research project in 2006, aiming to collect information about the disaster education over the world and analyze them, in order to understand the current situation of the disaster education and to explore its future directions. Targeted disaster education in this research was (a) Education of children (primary and secondary), (b) College/university education, (c) Education of ordinary people at community level. The case studies on disaster education in Japan, Fiji, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, India, and Nepal were also conducted. This research was conducted in cooperation with other institutes/organizations as a joint research as follows. (1) School education in the world and a case study of India Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), India Prof. Ravi Sinha (2) Education for ordinary people and a case study of Nepal NSET-Nepal, Nepal Mr. Amod Dixit (3) Disaster education in Japan Asia Disaster Reduction Center Ms. Takako Chinoi (4) Disaster education in Indonesia, Fiji, and Uzbekistan Mr. Bishnu Pandey (UNCRD) This research was conducted in association with the Decade for Education and Sustainable Development designated by UNESCO and the 2006-2007 Campaign “Disaster risk reduction begins at school,” by the UN ISDR Secretariat. The whole research was directed and managed by Professor Kenji Okazaki, GRIPS, with assistance of Professor. Ikuo, Shimomura, GRIPS. Ms. Marla Petal, Director of Risk Red, kindly offered "Compendium of Who What Where Recent Efforts in School Safety and Disaster Risk Reduction Education 2005 - 2007" (Appendix 6), which was compiled by Risk RED, basedon correspondence from contributors to the UNISDR Knowledge and EducationPlatform. 2007 Kenji Okazaki Professor, GRIPS Table of Contents Foreword Freface 1. School Education for Disaster Reduction . 1 1.1 School Curriculum around the World . 1 1.2 University Curriculum around the World . 13 1.3 School Curricula in India . 22 2. Disaster Education for Community People . 28 3. Disaster Education in Japan. 50 4. Disaster Education in Fiji, Indonesia, and Uzbekista . 67 Appendix 1. Check-sheet of Disaster Management Curriculum in Schools 2. Fact-sheet of Diploma, Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Certificate Courses on Disaster Management Studies 3. University Curriculum Around the World 4. Detailed Programs for Disaster Education for Community People 5. Teaching Materials Developed by the Hyogo Prefectural Board of Education, Japan 6. Conpendium of Who What Where Recent Efforts in School Safety and Disaster