Bringing Safe school model to primary schools

During January and February 2015, German Red Cross (GRC) and the two Chapters of Binh Dinh and Phu Yen have collaborated with 7 primary schools in the 6 project wards in Quy Nhon and Tuy Hoa to organize Safe school training for those schools’ teachers. In total, 152 teachers were involved in the Safe school training classes in the 2 cities. Those trainings also involved the staffs from the Cities Offices of Education and Training who monitored the activity as a part of an effort to bring safe school model to local schools which will ultimately result in an increase in school safety in the face of disasters and climate change.

The main goal of this training was to provide the how-to knowledge to build up a safe school for the school staff, especially for the school Disaster Risk Management (DRM) board. The safe school model is made of several steps which can be summarize as (1) common awareness-raising activities, (2) school Disaster Risk Assessment (DRA), (3) participatory school Disaster Risk Management planning and (4) promoting the interest of school managers in developing a safe school.

A teacher presents her group discussion’s results on the risks, vulnerabilities and capacities of her school and the recommendations to build a safe school (Hai Cang primary school – Quy Nhon city)

Post training interviews showed that the participants, especially the school managers really valued receiving safe school-related knowledge and highlighted the change in their awareness in terms of school safety. They thus expressed their commitment in developing the safe school model to their schools, including mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management-related knowledge and skills in school curriculum in the future.

Mr. Truong Dinh Long – a teacher of Nhon Binh no. 2 primary school (Quy Nhon) shared that “The training is very useful for my teaching. I would like to integrate the knowledge I obtained into lessons at school so that my students will also know about safe school model and be able to protect themselves in case of natural disasters. Personally, due to this training course, I think my life becomes more interesting because I learnt new knowledge.” In addition, Mr Dao Thanh Tung, a vice principal and a deputy manager of the school DRM board of the school Le Quy Don in Ward 1, Tuy Hoa, also emphasized: “We will frequently integrate the safe school-related knowledge where possible in order to increase the students’ awareness in DRM leading to school safety”.

Training class for teachers of Bach Dang primary school – Ward 6, Tuy Hoa city

Moreover, Ms. Huynh Thi Kim Thanh, a teacher of Hoang Quoc Viet primary school (Quy Nhon city) said that: “Thanks to the training, now I know how to make a Disaster preparedness (DP) plan for a school in order to find solutions for better preparation, response and recovery from a disaster. I also learnt how to use DRA tools to assess school’s disaster risks, which provide important inputs for building up a safe school.”

Closing session of the training for teachers of Hai Cang primary school – Quy Nhon city

After the safe school training, each project primary school in Quy Nhon and Tuy Hoa cities will conduct a Disaster Risk Assessment in their school, a critical step to identify and understand disaster risks of the schools and build a safe school.

Bui Thi Minh Chau
GRC PO in Binh Dinh

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