DepEd holds workshops on how to protect students during disasters

With its more than 24 million learners nationwide, the Department of Education (DepEd) held a series of three-day workshops for some 200 disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) coordinators to help ensure the students’ safety.

The capacity-building workshops, Assistant Education Secretary Reynaldo Laguda said, made sure that the agency’s network of DRRM personnel spoke a common language and worked together to achieve the common goal of disaster preparedness and quick response.

Laguda said it was the DepEd’s responsibility to keep students safe when faced with natural hazards like earthquakes, flash floods and landslides, as well as fires and other emergencies.

He said the series of three-day workshops, held from August to September in different cities, aimed to provide DRRM coordinators with basic knowledge, concepts and guiding principles and orient them on the roles of different DepEd offices in times of disaster.

Divided into four clusters, the DRRM workshops trained more than 200 coordinators from different DepEd divisions and regional offices.

It was held from Aug. 25 to Aug. 29 in Baguio City for coordinators in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon regions, as well as in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

On Sept. 1 to 5, training was held in Cebu City for western, central and eastern Visayas, as well as the Caraga region.

Tagaytay City was the training site for the National Capital Region and the regions of Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) and Bicol.

On Sept. 15 to 19, the training was held in Davao City for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao region and Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos).

Laguda said the workshops helped coordinators strengthen DRRM interventions and initiatives in their respective areas through the use of the DepEd’s database on hazard occurrence and vulnerabilities in different schools.

The database, which covers the last five years, consists of information from all 47,000 schools nationwide through the DepEd’s Enhanced Basic Education Information Systems.

Best practices

Laguda said the workshops enabled participants to share experiences and best practices.

Simulation exercises were conducted to check coordinators’ responses to different disasters. The DepEd also discussed information management and communication protocol with disaster responders to ensure that response was timely and well coordinated.

Participants later identified steps to further strengthen the DepEd’s disaster response.

For the workshops, the DepEd partnered with Save the Children (STC), United Nations Children’s Fund, World Vision, Japan International Cooperation Agency Philippines and Philippine Toy Library.

STC education in emergencies officer Nestor de Veyra said the workshops equipped coordinators with “a common language that will help them operationalize DRRM concepts.”

Laguda said the ultimate goal of the activity was to make the country a benchmark for preparedness, not just for recovery, in the face of disaster.

STC, in its effort to help increase the preparedness and resiliency of children in schools, at home and in communities, is organizing children’s brigades in six schools as part of its Philippine DRRM program in partner municipalities.

STC is also training 10 pupils in each school as members of the new DRRM brigades.

The project currently covers six barangays and six public elementary schools in Masantol and Minalin towns in Pampanga province.

Training workshops cover basic DRRM concepts, hazard mapping, early warning systems, communication plans, evacuation plans and school disaster management plan.