Background

Children are the most valuable asset and are amongst the most vulnerable segments of society. Destruction caused by major earthquakes in the South-East Asian region of the past few years remind us of insufficient progress towards safe schools. One of the most tragic aspects of the October 8, 2005 earthquake in Pakistan was the disastrous collapse of schools where over 8,000 schools were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Over 17,000 school-age children perished in these collapsed schools (approximately 23% of the total deaths), and over 20,000 children suffered serious injuries. Pakistan falls in a seismically active zone with more then 50 percent of the population living in high seismic activity area. There is a potential threat of similar disaster in various areas of Pakistan such as Northern Areas, Kashmir, Balochistan, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), and parts of Sindh and the Punjab with approximately 30,000 such schools being located in similar seismically active zones.

There, generally, is an agreement among experts that many schools collapse due to lack of knowledge and lack of policy formulation and guidelines for school site selection, design, construction, and use of construction material, etc. Equally contributing to such factors is lack of preparedness in schools in terms of evacuation plans, designated evacuation areas, and safety awareness. It is known that existing technology and knowledge can be applied in a cost effective manner to lower risks to schools. Promoting school safety is of strategic importance to overall community safety as activities related to school safety trickle down to the larger community through various means such as training of masons, interests of parents, and conveyance of information by children to the entire household. Educating school children on how to make their environment risk-free may lead to educated and safer generations.

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