Philippines: Beyond the shake drill, making schools disaster-ready

The Quezon City school in Manila has been staging quake-scenario dry runs for two years now. Surprise drills come three times a month, its principal said. For the educators, the activities—which were hardly a fixture of the school experience a decade ago—are gradually raising children’s awareness of the hazards of disasters.

The Philippines Department of Education (DepEd) recently took steps to make the school system more alert and responsive to disaster risks. This consisted of ensuring the safety of school infrastructures, improving schools’ disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) practices and integrating them in school activities.

In June, the department released protocols for how its schools and offices should prepare for and react to calamities.Among them: establishing early warning systems, conducting quarterly multi-hazard drills, pre-identifying possible temporary learning spaces for classes to resume, safekeeping school records and learning materials and coordinating closely with the community’s disaster management council.

“Our ambition—and we’ll see if we can do this—is to have one activity per month that highlights DRR (disaster and risk reduction) preparedness,” said Rey Laguda from DepEd to ABS-CBN News.