The government has designated Sept. 21 as National Disaster Prevention Day. On that day, nationwide earthquake and tsunami drills were conducted to help people prepare for emergencies.
Earthquake drills were held on campuses, and some drills tested smoke detection systems, and fire reporting and alarm systems.
During an earthquake, there could be fires, landslides, or tsunamis. The authorities should consider including simulations of landslides in national disaster drills. The probability of landslides is higher than that of earthquakes.
To carry out landslide drills, students would have to walk out of their classrooms to the safe areas in their communities.
Many schools are actively involved in disaster prevention and have come up with various innovative disaster prevention measures. However, they are not as active in carrying out landslide drills with the local community.
Although some suburban communities have no problem in conducting disaster drills, many drills cannot be sustained, because of the aging population and young people’s unwillingness to take part in them.
The Water Resources Agency and the Agency of Rural Development and Soil and Water Conservation said they have made substantial progress in promoting disaster prevention to communities. However, most of those who participate are elderly people.
This is because there are not many schools providing a curriculum related to community disaster prevention.
A teacher from Nantou County responsible for disaster prevention education said there is no policy incentive for schools to bring students to disaster prevention communities, because it is not one of the competencies that is evaluated as part of the Ministry of Education’s “108 curriculum.”
Although the 108 curriculum includes environmental education, it does not encourage students to leave the classroom and connect with the local community.
Policy incentives are the key to connecting students with the community, whose destiny they would share in the event of a natural disaster. Students should actively collaborate with their community in environmental education and disaster prevention. Otherwise, they disconnect from each other.
Yang Yung-nane is a professor of political science at National Cheng Kung University and an adviser to the Tainan City Government’s disaster prevention advisory committee.
Translated by Fion Khan
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