STRENGTHENING DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND FIRST AID SKILLS OF CHILDREN IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS: KEY TO BUILDING RESILIENT CITIZENS AND COMMUNITIES

 

Schools, in particular, Primary and Secondary, are essentially, where ideas, skills and values of common interest to the society are sown, in the early days of a child’s development in education. The formalized nurturing processes that expose the growing child to the outer world, through a structured strategy of building the mind and feeding the brain with knowledge: thinking, orientation and values, approved and mutually accepted and believed to be vital to the life of the child, take root in the school.

One can argue and rightly too, that the foundation for a lifelong learning process of developing the child as agent of change through the education system occur largely in the school. In this context development involves teaching, training and coaching of different types, conducted to equip the child with the lessons that formal education and grooming has prepared as basic requirement for the good of the child and the society. 

The systematic and strategic approaches to developing the child, which are not only firmly rooted, but stretch over some years, are adopted to ensure that the growing child receives the best (all things being equal). The Schools, are reputed as centers of learning, and vehicle for transferring from one generation to another, traditional and modern know-how, values and ethics accepted, encouraged and promoted by the society, at any point in time. 

The child, which in my thinking represents the hope and future of a society, is no doubt a critical factor when designing programmes to address present needs, and equally crucial when putting together activities targeted at shaping the future. The child, is therefore, central in building the society of today and tomorrow. All right thinking adults know this and subscribe to it. 

Essentially, therefore, in the effort to build  resilient citizens and society, the child is paramount, so also is the need for increased consciousness and awareness about Disaster and First Aid, in Primary and Secondary Schools. These key elements and more are vital for building a modern society. Support for structures very necessary to empowering students and pupils with Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and First Aid (FA), skills are in this piece, strongly advocated. I hold the view that in a modern world, a school is dysfunctional, if the students and pupils’ are not DRR and FA complaint, in which case they are not giving opportunity to acquire basic life-saving skills, in addition to the school subjects taught. 

I say the above, firmly aware that confusion that sets in whenever Disaster/emergency occurs, creates chaos, uncertainty and panic. More often than not, confusion has resulted to secondary injuries and fatalities, to many people escaping the scene of Disaster. 

Panic mode: explained out rightly here, as the sudden, uncoordinated and unplanned or hasty actions taken by those in a disaster scene has led to accidents of various types: Fatal, Serious and Minor. Some of the injuries sustained, in most cases are the consequences of poor or absence of a preparedness plan. Many observers agree that the impact of cases resulting from panic mode are severe and devastating. Some of the witnesses of Disaster, have noted that the impact of cases of panic is extremely very difficult or hard to bear. 

Panic, according to disaster monitors and  observers, has led to much more devastating consequences, where children are involved, in a Disaster. 

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Nnabugwu Chizoba