The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Experts at a sharing meeting in the city said though Bangladesh is on the verge of substantial threat of natural disaster like earthquake, it is never prioritised in disaster management.

The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Primary and Mass Education doesn't have any representation in the National Disaster Management Council to formulate and coordinate in disaster management at the national level, they said.

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) does not have any specific guidelines on making school infrastructure safer, but emphasis has been given on decentralisation of planning, implementation, operation and maintenance with active involvement of community, NGOs and private sector in any interventions of LGED. In fact, centrally planned and unified existing school infrastructural design as well as academic calendar is the reflection of the flawed education management, said the experts at the meeting.

PRSP is envisioned with the goal of mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into national development strategy, but school education as the most effective way of disaster risk reduction is not duly recognised, they said.

Decentralisation of authority to the grassroots level management can be supportive to maintain a standard contact hour and safe school infrastructures during disaster, they recommended.

They urged the government to ensure as far as possible construction of all educational institutions as two storied building in cyclone and flood prone areas.

The meeting on 'Civil society review of policy relevance for reducing disaster risks at/ through schools' jointly organised by Advanced Public Interest Trust (APIT) and Disaster Forum (DF) was held at conference room of Uttaran yesterday.

Maliha Shahjahan, Director of Research and Policy Audit of APIT and Raihan Sharif, Policy Analyst of APIT, jointly presented a discussion paper, while Dr M Anwarul Haque, former Director General of NAEM, moderated the session.

Speakers urged the government to introduce disaster related subjects in the curricula of schools and colleges in association with Disaster Management Bureau.

They stressed the need for arranging of warm-up training of teachers and students in disaster prone areas at different stages of disaster and if necessary, organise them, through coordination with the local authority as volunteers and inspire them for rescue, evolution and relief works.

They underscored the need for ensuring appropriate repair and maintenance of primary buildings in cyclone prone areas and also ensure wide scale disaster preparedness rehearsals by educational institutions within the months of April and September every year for enhancement of education and consciousness among people of the disaster prone areas.

Dr KM Shariful Huda, Professor of Dept of Geography and Environment of Jahangirnagar University, Shashanka Saadi, Climate Adaptation Expert of UNDP, Md Shafiqul Islam, Director Programmes of Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Sabbir Bin Shams of APIT, among others, spoke at the meeting.