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

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183 South Asia Children sit on a rooftop, watching the approach of a storm, in Sawa Khola Village, Mugu District of Nepal. © UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0870/Sokol ‘Disaster curriculum,’ he writes, ‘is not included as a crosscutting subject in the school level curriculum and textbooks of Nepal. ‘He goes on to develop a full schema of DRR topics and ‘messages’ for implementation, grades 6 to 8 (Ibid. 36-41), something that that the Centre for Policy Research and Consultancy had also covered in their August 2007 report on behalf of the Action Aid DRRS project (see below). (CPReC, 2007, 21-2). Pedagogy The textbook-driven nature of DRR curriculum development reflects the centrality of the textbook to teaching and learning in Nepal. Textbook reform, the chosen strategy of DRR-related curriculum advocates and developers (and the focus of the both the Centre for Policy Research and Upadhyay in their respective reports on disaster-related topics in the curriculum of 2007 and 2009), is a pragmatic approach insofar as it more easily secures a greater presence for DRR in the Nepali curriculum. It is an approach, however, that often leaves the requisite active pedagogy for realizing the skills and dispositions for disaster risk preparedness,prevention and mitigation undeveloped. ‘At present,’ the Centre for Policy Research and Consultancy report states, ‘the textbooks are of vertical type and currently CDC is attempting to give the curriculum and textbook a horizontal shape…Pedagogy has a key role in knowledge transmission and learning competencies’ (CPReC, 2007, 17). Two years later, Upadhyay asks that pedagogy be considered while developing curriculum on DRR education (2009, 29). A headline in an ActionAid retrospective on its 2006-11 project reads: ‘Our work is still not done …so further work on pedagogy’ (ActionAid, undated, a). Student Assessment No details of DRR-specific student assessment have been found. Teacher Professional Development/Guidance The Centre for Policy Research and Consultancy (2007, 16) and Upadhyay (2009, 28) both review available disaster-related content in teacher guides but make no reference to any guidance on the actual conduct of DRR lessons. According to the CPReC 2007 report, CDC officials reported that there were no teacher training programs focusing on DRR at that time (Ibid. 16). A presumably more recent ActionAid document refers to the organization’s involvement in training teachers and developing teacher guides (ActionAid, undated, a) while some recent CDC disaster-related curriculum developments involve preparing for teacher orientation to the new curriculum (see below). Learning Outcomes/Competencies No list or statement of DRR-related learning outcomes or competencies has been located. Policy Development, Planning and Implementation Aspects In 2006 ActionAid launched the Nepal arm of its Disaster Risk Reduction through Schools project in cooperation with the Centre for Policy Research and Consultancy (CPReC). Efforts were directed to persuading the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) of the Ministry of Education of the importance of integrating DRR in the curriculum. Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies from Thirty Countries
184 Section 10. Case 28: The Case Studies Nepal A first step was to hold a sensitization workshop to alert Ministry of Education, CDC, teacher unions, media, disaster expert and teaching personnel to the government’s declared commitment to HFA Priority 3, core indicator 3.2. In this way, the CDC staff was made aware of the political commitment to building disaster resilience through education. (ActionAid, undated, a). A second one-day workshop on how to integrate DRR education into the curriculum in light of HFA followed. Workshop participants included CDC staff and other educational and disaster experts. The workshop identified ‘key and essential steps’ and recommended forming a taskforce of CDC personnel, other educationalists and disaster experts to move things forward (Ibid). The taskforce, including CDC membership, undertook a mapping of school texts, grades 1 to 10, to identify existing disaster-related topics and to identify further windows of opportunity for the integration of DRR. In the mapping process, two workshops with CDC subject committee experts were held to cull reactions on the relevance of DRR to specific subjects as well as ideas on potential areas for DRR integration, and to lobby for inclusion of DRR-related curriculum within national curricula and textbooks (CPReC, 2008, 7). A report, Disaster Sensitivity of School Curriculum, Textbooks, and Teacher Training Packages (CPReC, 2008) was eventually produced. The outcome was the integration of DRR strands, especially in the Science textbook for grade 9, but also, to some extent, in Social Science and environment and population textbooks (see above). While textbook coverage of disasters from prior to the project had focused on climatological and geological causes, the revisions also encompass issues of disaster preparedness as well as behaviour during disasters (ActionAid, undated, a). CDC, supported by UNDP, is now engaged in an ‘ongoing process’ of introducing DRR-related content into school textbooks (UNISDR, 2011, 58). CDC is also presently conducting a DRR lower secondary level curriculum review. ‘The exercise will be instrumental in revising the existing curriculum at Lower Secondary Level (Grade 6-8) and the curriculum is expected to be revised very soon.’ DRR reference materials for students and a teacher orientation package have been prepared (Ibid). The Nepalese approach raises a number of issues. One concerns the centralized (‘one text fits all’) nature of curriculum development given the disparate nature of hazards facing communities. ‘The country faces different hazards in different parts and they have diverse resources to cope with disasters’ (ibid. 59). In addition, Nepal is characterized by closely-knit rural communities, in which school is a cornerstone of daily life and local culture (Upadhyay, 2009, 18). An overly centripetal curricular approach to DRR leaves little space to capitalize upon these realities. A promising development, however, is that ‘CDC is planning to adopt flexibility in curriculum allowing schools to introduce contextual curriculum and textbooks,’ a move that would be responsive to the ‘emerging context of New Nepal with (its) possible federal system of governance’ (CPReC, 2007, 17). Adherence to textbook-driven curriculum development also tends to emphasize what is achieved towards knowledge-based DRR goals with less emphasis given to the development of Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies from Thirty Countries
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Disaster Risk Reduction in School C
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5 Acknowledgements UNICEF and UNESC
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8 Executive Summary This document r
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