Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies ... - Unicef

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Section 10.
Case 21:
The Case Studies
Costa Rica
Policy Development, Planning, Implementation Aspects
From 2004 to 2009, Costa Rica implemented a National Plan
for Disaster Risk Reduction Education (PLANERRYD) with the
objective of creating a disaster prevention culture. PLANERRYD
has been implemented by the Ministry of Education in coordination
with local authorities and schools. Its main areas are:
Improvement of school infrastructure
Teaching and training geared towards the creation of school
security teams
Curriculum development, aimed at producing guidelines
to incorporate DRR education in primary, secondary and
university education
Promotion and sustainability, seeking to improve school
security (Ministerio de Educación Pública et. al, 2000, 3).
The area of curriculum development was described as follows:
“Through a national curricular revision, PLANERRYD will identify
all the topics and cultural contents that have a direct relation
with the themes of prevention, mitigation, preparedness and
disaster risk reduction. Likewise, PLANERRYD will seek to
include absent contents and to define methodological strategies
to strengthen curricular changes” (Ministerio de Educación
Pública et. al, 2000, 27).
The 2007 report on the national Implementation of the Hyogo
Agreement accounts for the implementation of PLANERRYD,
stating that it has been adopted by the education sector with
an intense level of participation and that primary teachers have
received training (CNE, 2007, 12).
Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies from Thirty Countries