The community-based approach
does not end when construction finishes.
The last stage, maintaining a safer school, is ongoing.
Previous stages of safer school construction
included participation and training opportunities with the community.
Often, this community engagement
leads to the community changing its views on hazards
and committing to building safer schools.
Stage 5 is where this changing view on hazards and safety
spreads to other parts of school life and community.
When the community learns about hazards
and works together to remove unsafe conditions,
and when the community values safety
as a goal for their children and for themselves,
they begin to create a culture of safety.
With support from the program manager,
the community grows this culture of safety,
even after school construction ends.
They do this by maintaining the school,
applying a safety culture to other parts of their lives,
and passing on lessons learned to future generations.
If implemented well, Stage 5 has the biggest long-term impact.
There are three steps in the Maintenance stage:
Step 1: Develop a school use manual and maintenance plan.
Step 2: Celebrate completion and integrate safety.
Step 3. Promote broader responsibility.
These steps make sure safer school construction becomes the norm.
They ensure the community continues to learn from hazards
and reduce their risk.
Step 1: Develop school use manual and maintenance plan.
As construction finishes,
the program manager and school management committee
focus on the safe use and maintenance of the school.
They first work with the design team to write a user manual,
a document that lists how the school can, and cannot, be used safely.
Government policies may require particular safe uses of the school,
so government agencies may help write the manual.
Perhaps the school is designed
to be a temporary community shelter during disasters.
This is written down in the user manual.
If the school foundation is only strong enough to support two storeys,
this is also written down.
The school management committee needs to know
what changes they can safely make without seeking approval.
Changes such as painting, replacing windows,
or planting vegetation may all be acceptable.
But other changes, like adding doors or removing columns,
might weaken the school building.
These changes need approval from an engineer.
The school management committee needs to know this
before the school is handed over to the community.
All these permitted uses and changes, along with those that are not,
are included in the use manual.
The final design drawings are also included.
But that is not all. A safer school needs a maintenance plan.
The program manager helps school staff and the committee to understand
that maintenance keeps schools functional and safe.
A maintenance plan can include a number of helpful tools.
A maintenance schedule includes a timetable
of when jobs need to be done on the school building and grounds.
A maintenance checklist helps school staff remember what they need to do
and who is responsible for each task.
Part of a good maintenance plan is the budget:
working out how to pay for each task.
Generally, the government agency or organisation
in charge of managing the school
is responsible for funding this maintenance work,
but sometimes there is not enough money.
A school management committee can find creative ways
to boost limited funds.
Some schools have regular "safe school days".
These are when everyone - parents, students, staff –
donate time and skills to maintain the school.
World Disaster Risk Reduction Day on October 13
might be a good date to choose.
The community may also have regular community work days.
When funds are limited, the school management committee
may ask parents and older students to help raise money for maintenance.
Building a safer school takes a lot of hard work and time.
Proper care and use of the building
will ensure the next disaster does not destroy
what the community has created.
The next step of the Maintain stage is
Step 2: Celebrate completion and integrate safety.
Completing a safer school project is a big achievement for any community.
While the safer school building itself is significant,
so too is the community's new knowledge and skills
and its emerging culture of safety.
The community has become a partner in protecting their children.
It should be celebrated.
This celebration highlights how the community
made safety-conscious choices when selecting their site,
designing their school, and constructing it.
The celebration is also a public commitment
to maintain the school building
and integrate safety into all parts of their lives.
Once students begin classes,
it is important these lessons of safety
are immediately put to practice.
Staff and students need to manage their school
so everyone remains safe during disasters.
Even when a school building is safe,
its fittings and educational tools can be damaged
or even injure or kill students and staff during a disaster.
Everyone needs to think about the contents of their school,
what might be damaged, and what might cause damage.
In earthquakes,
heavy furniture can topple onto people or block exits.
These items should be attached to the walls.
It is important to also minimise fire risk.
Chemicals can spill and cause explosions,
so hazardous materials
should be stored in cabinets with latched doors.
Small edges or bars should be installed
to secure flammable materials on shelves
and keep them from falling off.
In high-wind areas, unprotected glass can shatter.
Window covers should be made to be ready to attach
before high winds arrive.
In floods, books and records can be ruined forever.
A high shelf can keep the most important ones above flood waters.
The school management committee and older students
identify these problems and find simple solutions.
One way to do this is to form a safety committee.
The second consideration should be disaster management:
how students and staff need to respond safely during disasters.
After construction, the school forms a disaster management committee
made up of school staff, emergency management specialists,
parents, and students.
This committee drafts school procedures
for emergencies and disasters.
They make sure emergency supplies are gathered and stored.
The procedures include important actions,
such as when and how to evacuate safely,
where to gather in an emergency,
and how to keep track of students and reunite them with their parents.
School staff and older students
also learn how to perform simple emergency tasks
like putting out small fires and providing first aid.
These procedures and skills can save lives and property.
They must be practised regularly,
so the school disaster management committee
must set up regular emergency drills.
Lastly, students, staff, parents, and the community
continue to learn about disasters and school safety.
Information about hazards, safer construction techniques,
and school safety procedures
all become part of the school culture,
and even the curriculum.
This can even be fun.
Classes can create plays on how to reduce disaster risk
to perform to their families and fellow students.
Parent meetings each year can explain emergency procedures
and also point out again the safety features of the school.
Learning about a culture of safety can even change the curriculum
or be used as supplementary material.
In science classes, students can learn about hazards in their region.
In history class, students may want to interview their elders
about historic disasters.
In social studies classes, students may play games
to learn ways their families and their communities
protect themselves from hazards like floods, high winds, earthquakes,
and now climate change.
The last step in the Maintain stage is:
Step 3. Promote broader responsibility.
This step is no longer about the community
where a safer school is built.
It is about broader changes to the way regions, countries,
ministries of education, and development organisations operate.
It is about all of us.
To promote broader responsibility for safer schools,
governments and humanitarian and development organisations
should make a public commitment that every school they build
is a safer school.
Budgetary constraints can never be an excuse
for putting children in schools that can hurt or kill them.
Where funding bodies resist the small increase in cost or effort
needed to build safer schools,
we need to advocate for children and educate those funding bodies.
Finally, we all need to learn from each other.
When safer school projects are successful,
when they result in safer school buildings
and more resilient communities,
the successes and challenges need to be shared.
This last stage of safer school construction,
Stage 5, Maintain,
starts when construction comes to an end.
In this stage, the program manager, design team
and school management committee
develop a use manual and maintenance plan.
They celebrate the completion of the school
and the school staff and students integrate safety
into their practices.
But their work continues long after the safer school is finished.
Everyone continues to promote broader responsibility,
for the safety of their school,
but also for all schools and all children.
Over this century alone, countless children have died
in the very buildings meant to educate and keep them safe.
Untold communities have lost their investments
when disasters destroyed their schools.
We have the knowledge and skills. Now we need to change the process.
Together, we can make sure every child has access
to not just a school, but a safe school.
And by taking a community-based approach,
safer school projects can help make sure
that when children leave their schools,
they return to resilient homes and communities.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét