The New Nation - Internet Edition

A SEMINAR titled 'Disaster and Education' was held on Thursday at the Jatiya Press Club under the auspices of 'Advancing Public Interest Trust, an NGO, and Saptahiki, a Bengali weekly magazine. The speakers there suggested that disaster issues and their management should be incorportated in the education curricula. In view of the disaster proneness of Bangladesh the suggestion appears to be important and pragmatic. Disasters, their aftermath and their best possible management should very much form lessons in the primary and secondary curricula. The education curricula in no way should ignore practical aspects of life.

According to statistics of 2005, there were 2.36 crore students in the formal schooling system. The Director of the 'Disaster Management Bureau of the government has inferred that if only one third of the students could effectively communicate the Sidr event nearly three and a half crore people could have been sensitised about the disaster. Not much books and teaching materials on disasters are available in the country right now. The government may form a committee of experts to write books and prepare teaching and training materials on disasters the country intermittently face.

It should be borne in mind that disaster management education should not be bookish. It should be as practical as possible so that the learners can apply the knowledge at the time of need and can also educate their parents and neighbours. Before introducing lessons on disasters a group of teachers also need to be trained and oriented on the subject. Such lessons may form part of the broader subject - environment. Pupils should have basic knowledge about Bangladesh's environment of which natural disasters are periodic off-shoots. Knowledge about disasters would enable our future citizens to cope with those.