'Education in public protection and disaster prevention' workshop took place in Prague
Fifth workshop from the series called "Education in protection of inhabitants and disaster prevention” took place in Prague on March 26, 2015. Similarly as the previous workshops this event was organized by the Czech Association for Environmental Care together with the Czech National Committee for Disaster Reduction.
More than 60 specialists from the state and public administration and crisis management, nongovernmental organizations and specialists from industry and education participated in this workshop. The main goal of the workshop was to investigate situation in education and training oriented towards disaster risk reduction (DRR) and to seek possibilities of improvement of the situation in the education and knowledge in the near future.
Education and training of population, local and state administration as well as in business organizations is very important element of the public protection and continuous improvement of disaster risk prevention and preparedness for various types of catastrophes. The key element is education of young people at all school levels which can significantly contribute to the overall preparedness of population. Education should also include exercises and training in crisis situations. Improper handling with land as well as an insufficient resilience of buildings and the infrastructure can often lead to negative impacts of catastrophes.
Besides the lectures the workshop also included practical examples – how to educate people in DRR on state, regional and local levels (especially the level of municipalities with extended powers could differ in levels of preparedness of individual communities) and what are the conditions and possibilities of education in DRR at all kinds of schools.
The workshop was oriented not only on the examples of good practice but included also negative examples of DRR practice on local and regional levels. The important parts of the workshop were discussions and exchange of information among the participants, how to improve various parts of DRR system and how to use the practical examples and knowledge for further education and training towards enhancing our preparedness for catastrophes.
I. Obrusník moderated the final discussion of the workshop ending up with a few important conclusions: It is necessary to change an approach of the public to education and training in DRR. People mostly erroneously think that they are sufficiently protected by the existing crisis management and integrated rescue systems against all catastrophes and, consequently, they do not need to educate themselves in DRR.
The workshop showed how the Fire and Rescue Service helps in education of young and also adult inhabitants by means of the system of lectures, trainings and modern tools like films, videos, brochures, textbooks and special web pages. Nongovernmental organizations like “Lifebuoy” are also helping in this education process.
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports continuously improves education of pupils on various school levels with exception of universities and educates also teachers in DRR problematics. Some of the workshop lecturers showed good examples of education and training in Prague, its districts and also at the level of municipalities with extended powers.
All participants in discussions stressed the importance of practical trainings for preparedness on various types of disasters and the necessity of continuous improvement of such education.