Gaps and Priorities

The regularity of disasters the country experiences and interventions made by the government including legislation and institutional programs should have already raised our government and people’s capacity to deal with such and address it efficiently and effectively.

Concretely however, local actors have uneven capacities in handling disaster situations, with some even unable to come up with ways to map out lasting solutions to the education sector’s woes in times of disaster/emergencies such as the use of schools as evacuation centers, building durable classroom structures, getting teachers and children ready for emergencies among other concerns.

The operationalization of the Comprehensive School Safety Framework for a disaster resilient education sector poses challenges.

Below is a list of issues, gaps and challenges identified thru consultations with different stakeholders facilitated by the Civil Society Network for Education Reforms (E-Net Philippines), specifically done in the Visayas region.

Pillar 1: Safe Learning Facilities

• Participation of stakeholders (students, teachers, community leaders, etc.) missing/lacking in Site Selection and Monitoring of infrastructure from construction to maintenance of facilities;
•  Hazard Assessment for site selection of schools and Safety Assessments on existing school buildings and facilities lacking – some schools are still in the danger zone; new schools built but not resilient from substandard materials used;
• Lack of coordination among agencies/institutions (including private) involved in site selection, construction, and maintenance of facilities;
• Lack of safety signage in school facilities;
•  No training of builders on resilient school building standards;
• Problem in the acquisition of lands for school buildings.

Pillar 2: School Disaster Management

• Not all schools have localized and contextualized DRR Manuals and corresponding implementation plan;
• No school disaster management council or may be present but not functioning or lack of knowledge of school management on disaster management;
• Standards of drills are questionable;
• No conscious documentation of local disasters/experiences to contextualize the plan;
• Dissemination of disaster related plans not done;
• No knowledge management mechanism (records keeping);
• No convergence among National Government Agencies (NGAs) on DRR and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation (CCAM);

Pillar 3: Risk Reduction and Resilience Education (RRRE)

• Inadequate trainings on DRR in subject area curriculum for teaching personnel (especially in private schools);
• Incapacitated community on RRRE;
• Need to build a DRR culture/ consciousness;
• Need for a culturally and locally contextualized DRR;
• Lack of psychosocial support especially to the learners or givers;
• No appropriate learning materials on DRR/CCAM or lack of sufficient materials on DRR;