Students Feel Much Safer at School than at their Homes

According to Forbes Magazine (2008), Kathmandu valley topped the list of 21 cities with 69,000 potential deaths, ahead of Istanbul and New Delhi. However, the communication sets have been brought in use to immediately collect incident details of disaster prone area and reach out relief materials by rescuing possible victims as said by the Nepal Red Cross Society, Bhaktapur.

With the growing concern on earthquake prone disaster and its effect on the most vulnerable population, particularly the school children and girls; schools of Nagarkot have commenced taking tangible actions. Shree Kalika Seconday School located at Nagarkot-6, established in 2017, is one of the 3 public schools of Nagarkot which have successfully implemented earthquake resistant building along with effective trainings on DRR and First Aid without any external social conflict among the total 6 schools within the VDC. 

According to the school principal Mr. Madhu Ram Thapa, “With the growing concern on the effect of Earthquake, the Department of Education (DoE) have been showing strong interest and budget segregation on constructing earthquake resistant infrastructures at the schools. Our school proposed for the same and we got selected in 2071. Financial support of NRs 22 lakhs by the DoE and technical support by the team of engineers from NSET and Nepal Red Cross Society have made it possible on completing the disaster resistant school building. According to the technical engineers, it has been guaranteed that earthquake of even 8 Richter scale can do no harm to the school building.”

Mr. Jaya Ram Dahal, focal person for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) have been appointed for the overall training on DRR and First Aid for the teachers and students of the schools for 2 years. It has been informed that Mr. Dahal has received 7 days extensive training on DRR planning from Red Cross Nepal and the school have drafted the future plan for the school on handling the unexpected disaster events. The school having 236 students with almost 62% girls are more concerned towards the most vulnerable groups. It has been confirmed that the most vulnerable groups from grade 1-5 feel much safer at schools than at their respective homes.

It has been observed that the school has been equipped with basic DRR tools such as stretchers, safety met and first aid kits. The school has already established Junior Red Cross Circle in 2067 with student rescue committee of 10 members. Each year this committee gets reformed and re-oriented. Almost all the students practice what to be done during the emergency situation for rescue once in every two months; especially the three steps of Duck, Cover and Hold during the earthquake.

Apart from students and teachers, school assistants like Mrs. Tirtha Maya Tamang have also been trained about DRR and first aid. Mrs. Tamang says, “I am confident on search and rescue during the disaster events. I have been trained twice and I even know how to use first aid during emergency.” When asked whether she feels burdened after getting an additional task for her apart from her usual job, she replied, “I am blessed to know how to save others’ lives and it is always good to do something for others who are in need.”

The school have been working on finalizing disaster response plan, organizing orientation for implementation of the plan; parents oriented, and fund raising for simple treatment. There are still few areas for improvement which the teachers have already realized and planning to work on. These include earthquake resistant friendly windows and doors; disable friendly infrastructure and community sensitization on DRR.