After working together intensively for more than four months, finally HFI and UNESCO have finished creating PDATES: the Preparedness Disaster Assessment Tool in Education Sector. PDATES is a device to assess the damage caused by disaster to the ability to provide education. It takes the form of a guidebook which helps measure damage in education facilities and offers proposals to make the teaching and learning process run as well even in emergency situation.
The unique book complements existing tools in Indonesia used in assessing the damages of disaster affect. Mostly, existing devices in this country assess the general damage caused by disaster: houses, public facilities, and so on. None of them specifically deal with damage to the education sector. PDATES assesses the needs, challenges, and the possibilities of carrying on with teaching and learning in emergency period. We’re working to save children’s education and to heal the traumas caused by losses of life, home and so on after disaster strikes.
Education is the right of every Indonesian. It’s also vital not to lose a generation of educated citizens because of a disaster like the Padang Earthquake; ignorance is a deadly enemy to prosperity, but educated citizens are a vital part of creating a stable, sustainable future for our country. And often after a disaster has struck, school provides children with an important routine in the face of chaos. So to give people the support they need, we must keep the teaching and learning in every situation.
The PDATES book will be given free to a thousand schools in Indonesia from elementary level up to senior high schools. It can also be expected to enhance Indonesian teachers’ knowledge about disaster risk reduction.
Several senior government and humanitarian departments who deal with disaster and education, including the ministry of national education and National Agency for Disaster Reduction in Indonesia, have given a very positive response to this book.
We hope that the PDATES will be very helpful and meaningful for the progress of the disaster risk reduction effort in Indonesia.
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