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

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Section 10.
Case 26:
The Case Studies
Bangladesh
Overview
Bangladesh offers an example of a highly
centralized textbook-driven integration of
DRR into formal school curricula, but one
in which pedagogical innovation and
teacher capacity building thus far
lag behind.
Curriculum Development/Integration
Bangladesh has a highly centralized school curriculum, with the
same textbooks used throughout the country. The National
Curriculum and Text Book Board (NCTB) has introduced disaster
and climate change-related themes (i.e., hazards, vulnerability,
preparedness) within chapters in a number of different textbooks,
such as Bangla, English, Social Science, General
Science (grades 5-7). Examples of topics included in textbooks
are as follows:
Bangla Language (grade 5): poetry on cyclones
Social Science (grade 6): definitions of disasters,
classifications of different types of disasters,
planning for disaster mitigation
English Literature (grade 6): fire (human-induced disaster),
drought
General Science (grade 7): floods, river bank erosion and
drought in Bangladesh
General Science (grade 8): natural disaster: cyclones and
tidal surges
(Islam, undated)
Chapters within textbooks are regularly updated and reviewed
by the NCTB to make them more risk management oriented
(Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, 2010).
Considering there are four different geo-climatic zones in
Bangladesh and that different regions are affected by different
kinds of hazards (for example, drought in the north, cyclone and
tidal surges in the south, river erosion and flood in the middle
of the country) (Das, 2010, 7), it is very questionable whether
centralized textbooks can flexibly address regionally and locally
specific hazards.
Pedagogy
In contrast to the above-mentioned textbook and knowledge
oriented DRR integration in formal school curricula, awareness
raising and skills oriented DRR learning examples exist through
co-curricular and extra-curricular activities supported by local
and international NGOs. For example, as part of a schoolbased
initiative by the International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies and Bangladesh Red Crescent
Society, a co-curricular activity on DRR and climate change
(i.e., a drawing and project design competition on building safer
communities) has been developed. This has been shared with
the National Curriculum Board of Bangladesh for their feedback
and dissemination. Extra-curricular opportunities such as a
one-day school fair (by Oxfam GB) and a student club (by Plan
Bangladesh) were used for awareness-raising and student
participation in school safety and disaster risk reduction
(European Commission, 2010).
Because of the general scarcity of DRR learning support materials
- not to mention ones using interactive methods - in Bangladesh,
adaptation of learning materials from elsewhere so they align
with the local culture and context could be regarded as an
important and positive step. In 2005, the Sustainable Development
Resource Centre supported by ActionAid Bangladesh
adapted a learning kit titled Let’s Learn to Prevent Disasters! Fun
Ways for Kids to Join in Risk Reduction 109 , and an accompanying
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http://www.unisdr.org/files/2114_VL108012.pdf
Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies from Thirty Countries