Source: http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=local&NewsID=1346
Bridgetown, Barbados, January 15, 2009 (The Barbados Advocate) - Some time later this year, schools across Barbados should be equipped with a disaster unit as the Department of Emer-gency Management (DEM) is developing a disaster management programme for these institutions as a means of actively engaging students in the process.
Word of this programme has come from director of the DEM, Ms. Judy Thomas who told shelter wardens and other disaster management officials at a workshop on Monday that such a programme would help students to have a broader understanding of the role that disaster management plays in the national agenda.
“If the school is going to be a safe haven, it means then the children collectively must take responsibility for the safety of the infrastructure and the safety of the building.
“Once they know that their school is going to be a shelter and that is so promoted, the children should gang together and ensure that the windows are not broken, that the taps are not broken, that the water units in the bathrooms are secure and to ensure that their peers also help to keep these things in place,” Thomas asserted.
Highlighting that this project would not cause any additional strain for teachers, the DEM director noted that the operations of the unit would be entirely left up to the students.
She went on to note that the safety programme which is run by United States Agency for International Develop-ment (USAID) would be incorporated into the schools’ disaster management programme to help students understand what role they can play.
“It would not be an added burden on the teachers because we expect the students at whatever age to help to run this kind of unit and give them some sense of getting ready for real living,” she added.
Delivering brief remarks during the opening ceremony, Disaster Risk Management specialist, Mr. Clive Lorde noted that the school’s Safety programme which would be introduced into local schools sometime this year is currently being piloted in schools across Belize and Jamaica.
Meanwhile, Chief Education Officer, Dr. Wendy Griffith-Watson advised the disaster management participants to share the information that they receive during the two-day workshop with other members from their organisations to ensure that this knowledge is transferred and administered in situations that may arise in their absence.
“When you go back, you should have your staff meetings and inform your staff so that this information is passed down. People go on leave, people retire, people are not there when an emergency occurs but in your school they must know what to do,” Griffith-Watson pointed out.
Acknowledging that emergencies do occur on school compounds from time to time, the education chief believes that an organised system should be put in place to mitigate such incidents when they occur.
“Another aspect of emergency management [that] we seldom think of is the fact that emergencies occur on the school compound, it doesn’t have to be something massive, it can be one child where something serious happens.
Instead of persons panicking there must be a very structured and orderly way of dealing with it and everybody must know what his or her role is, the same thing for bomb threats, fire scares and earthquakes,” he outlined.
