School disaster preparedness is key to making sure students know what to do in emergencies
6th of January 2020 was supposedly the first day of school for many students in Jakarta after the New Year break. It was not the case for TK in Cipinang, Melayu, East Jakarta. Neither it was for many more schools in Jakarta that were affected by floods on 1st of January 2020. Books soaked in water, school materials damaged, empty classes, and road block to schools are denying girls’ and boys’ access to education (Detik.com, Tempo.com, 2020). Data gathered by the Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture (MOEC) report that as of 3rd of January, 290 schools were affected with 201 flooded and 89 being inaccessible. 12 schools in Lebak Banten, West Java, were totally damaged, causing complete inaccessibility of teaching activity (Tempo.com, 2020).
The case of education discontinuity is commonplace in ASEAN region. Due to typhoon Ursula/Phanfone recently battering the Philippines during Christmas, schools were shut down, school infrastructures and basic education facilities devastated. Through RADAR application, schools reported the level of damages they experienced to the Philippines’ Department of Education (rappler.com, 2019).
Capacity of the school community to face emergencies is critical to save lives and take further measures to assure the education continuity. Each member, including girls/boys students, teachers, school principal, parents, administrator should clearly know their role when disaster strikes the school and follow the procedure they set out for themselves. ASSI, in this regard, created a video that contains steps behind planning to develop the standard operating procedures (SOPs). This was made in the ASEAN context and documented practices in schools in Thailand and Indonesia.
Check out more through this link.