Developing education in case of disasters to protect the life of children

Professor Sakurai Aiko from the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies has a unique fund, pursuing a career in international cooperation before expanding his research to include education in case of disasters.

While focusing on teachers and class, she explored the development of education in case of disasters, where schools can protect the lives of children and has been involved in implementing and supporting efforts in the field.

She was asked about how disaster education was changed after the great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake and the earthquake of the great East Japan and how she hopes to spread the initiatives in the world.

How did you get involved in disaster education?

I worked in my first year for Keidanren (business federation in Japan) at the time of the great Hanshin -waji earthquake and I just remember feeling so sad and powerless, I couldn’t help. Later I continued to work at the World Bank, then for a development consulting firm and others as an international development specialist.

The great earthquake of East Japan since March 2011 determined me to involve me in the recovery and support activities of the International NGO Save the children of Japan. Save children’s organizations around the world have received huge donations to help people in Japan and, after we were considering how we could help children in disaster areas, I offered support to schools there, depending on their needs.

Initially, as the schools were reopened, I offered children school bags, stationery and school bus services between temporary housing units and schools. This has changed gradually towards supporting learning activities, club activities and scholarship programs, as progress was made in the recovery and reconstruction of the schools in the affected areas.

One year after the earthquake, we started to receive requests from schools that asked us to help them with education in case of disasters. I considered what kind of support we could offer and considered the use of the education package in case of disasters who save the accumulated children. But it was difficult to apply the program in the situation in Japan and we felt the need for something more suitable for the circumstances in the areas devastated by the Great Earthquake in East Japan.

How did you think about developing the disaster education program?

The city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture asked us to work together on developing an education program in case of children after the devastation of the major earthquake.

In fact, it was a difficult time for Ishinomaki, because they were trying to approach the tragedy of the elementary school Okawa, where many children died. But they told us that they want to work on the education of disasters with one eye on the future and so we decided to help.

When we develop the new education program in case of disasters, besides maintaining previous initiatives and including learned lessons in the 2011 tsunami, we also considered what would be important during the reconstruction period for children who have suffered devastating losses.

With the cooperation of teachers from the classrooms, we formed a team with experts in earthquake engineering, geography and other areas to work on our common vision to develop the exercise to create a “recovery map”. I started the activity in 2012 at Kazuma Elementary School in Ishinomaki City, and this continued to be continued by students in the fourth year.

We were inspired by the initiatives of the Istayado elementary school in Kobe City during the recovery after the great Hanshin -waji earthquake, where they organized rides in the city and created maps of the city for their school district.

Usually, the city’s walks with the disaster management goal refer to the search for potential dangers around us. But, with our recovery maps, we held many discussions with school teachers and counselors how we could design the city walks to help children think positive about rebuilding their community after surviving a tsunami.

For example, the whole houses were swept by tsunami, and the vacancies were left after the debris were removed. We referred to those areas as places that are “ready for reconstruction”, talking about them in a positive light as ready for new houses.

With the recovery maps, the children were walking around the city and registered the progress as the community was rebuilt in their school district.

Seven years after the disaster, I carried out a questionnaire with the students of the junior high school who participated in the creation of the maps when they were at the elementary school and found that they were thinking a lot about the exercise. They said the initiative and improved the desire to help rebuild their community.

After starting with the Kazuma elementary school, the city of Ishinomaki introduced the initiative of the recovery map in other elementary and junior high schools as a disaster education program. Expanding pilot activities in wider areas is an important aspect in international cooperation efforts.

Our experiences with the city of Ishinomaki showed us that, even with the same tsunami, the extent of the damage and recovery stages can vary with each school district due to the differences between the land and that it is necessary to approach more dangers apart from Tsunamis, such as floods and landslides, how to do the land, as Floods and landslides, to make the education really disaster an effective initiative.

As we hoped for the broader implementation of an education program in case of disasters that incorporated the characteristics of the potential natural disasters of each region, our schedule of disaster recovery map has evolved in classes using topographic maps, hazard maps and other materials.

The children wondered why Tsunami reached different heights even in the same school district and began to learn how sea distances, altitudes, natural levers and other land features made all the difference.

How did education in case of disasters change from the great earthquake in East Japan?

One of the major challenges the East Great Earthquake presents in Japan was what schools could do to protect children in an increased risk of a natural disaster during the school program. In the process of the elementary school Okawa, submitted by the families of the children killed in the 2011 Tsunami, the court decision clearly stated that the schools have the obligation to protect the children. It has been reaffirmed that schools should be prepared by creating crisis management textbooks, performing evacuation exercises and improving disaster response skills. Education in case of disasters is not only for children, but also for school administrators, teachers, tutors and residents of the local community.

After the earthquake of the great East Japan, the Miyagi Prefecture was the first in Japan to implement the system of disaster management officers, where teachers play a central role in disaster management.

So, every school in the Miyagi Prefecture now has a disaster management officer. In 2019, the training programs for disaster management officers at Ishinomaki City schools began to understand the characteristics of land and the risks of disaster, using maps.

This was then developed in training programs on how to carry out emergency evacuations when students are at school. We consider that teachers and staff who can make the decision to evacuate the safety in a timely manner, when there is an increased risk of tsunami, floods, landslide or other disaster near the school or in the school district, will lead to an extremely effective disaster management.

The Hyogo Prefecture and the city of Kobe experienced the great Hanshin -waji earthquake. What do you think about their role in the field of disasters?

The initiatives of the Prefecture Hyogo and Kobe City after the great Hanshin -waji earthquake have become the foundation of international development in case of disasters.

Their initiatives address the problems on how to protect ourselves from earthquakes, how to survive immediately, which is the hardest period, how to proceed with recovery efforts based on connections with neighbors and communities and how to transmit the experience of the next generation.

They have developed a disaster education package that includes all these elements, and this is widespread not only in Japan, but also worldwide.

Teachers and personal teams were sent to Disaster areas Not only in Japan, but also worldwide to support local efforts in reopening their schools after natural disasters. Many international NGOs and organizations that address disasters are also based in Hyogo Prefecture.

Hyogo and Kobe are global leaders, with their experience and knowledge accumulated in the last 30 years since the great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake and I think this role should continue in the future.

What role would you like to play in the field of education in case of disasters?

Disaster management is an interdisciplinary field that involves scientific experts, engineering and many other disciplines for each of the dangers of rivers, landslides, earthquakes or tsunami. There are also experts in humanist and social sciences who look at information about disasters, evacuations and other aspects to study the impact that disasters can have on society, as well as human behavior.

As such, I think there is a role that I can play where I can use my background. I started my career specialized in education in developing countries, before expanding my activity to include research and practice of education in case of disasters. First of all, I think it is important to open access in specialized disciplines in disaster management.

It is also crucial to encourage two -way communication between experts and municipalities who provide information and people who receive this information by eliminating any barriers between them. In particular, I hope to promote disaster management initiatives that are focused on schools and have a comprehensive vision of real policies, plans and practice.

I also hope to concentrate efforts on the training of specialists in education in case of catastrophes at the Graduate School of International Cooperation of the University of Kobe, educating not only Japanese students, but also international students.

I hope international students will be able to study disaster education and preparation initiatives for disasters who allow people to protect the lives of their loved ones and then take what they have learned back in their countries to increase the resistance of their communities.