The Hindu 19.10.2010
Schools chart out disaster management plans
Staff Reporter
KOCHI: A few city schools will soon chart out disaster management plans for themselves.
The plan will include mapping of disaster vulnerability in each institution and mapping of exit routes for students in case of a disaster on the campus. Student teams will also be formed in the educational institutions for handling such situations on the campus. The escape routes and disaster vulnerability maps will be displayed in the educational institutions. The decision was taken at a workshop held for teachers of select 35 city schools held here on Monday.
The training programme, School Suraksha—School Safety and Awareness Programme, was jointly organised by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the United Nations Development Programme.
Students' awareness programmes will be held in the select city schools within two weeks. Mock drills and other emergency rescue preparedness programmes will also carried out in the schools. The Fire and Rescue department will be in charge of the mock drill and the police and traffic authorities will take care of the traffic awareness and related vigilance programmes.
Proposals for including safety lessons in the school curriculum were also mooted at the training programme.
Teachers selected from the workshop will also function as the resource persons for the State level campaign. A two-day State-level workshop will be held at Kochi on November 1 at Asir Bhavan.
Earlier, 125 schools from hazard-prone areas of the Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Thrissur and Kozhikode Corporations were selected for the programme. While 25 schools each were selected from Kollam, Thrissur and Kozhikode Corporations, 35 each from Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi corporations were also considered.
