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

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Section 10.
Case 2:
The Case Studies
Georgia
Policy Development, Planning and Implementation Aspects
As a first step towards incorporating DRR in the Georgian
National Curriculum a technical working group on DRR in
education was established to conduct a comprehensive review
of the National Curriculum. The review process identified
elements of DRR in a number of subjects but found no
comprehensive approach in the curriculum to disaster prevention
and hazard mapping.
At that time (fall 2010), the National Curriculum Centre was
developing a Head of Class Hour programme for grades 5-9
drawing together a number of themes and topics (for instance,
citizenship) that could not be easily accommodated by other
subjects. NCC proposed the development of a DRR component
in the Head of Class Hour programme which, given a successful
pilot testing, would be formally incorporated into the programme
and introduced in all schools nationwide.
The MOES decided that DRR should become an integral
component of the Head of Class Hour programme following
well-received 2010 pilots in 17 schools and spring 2011 pilot
training of 180 Head of Class Hour teachers in 25 schools
located in Tbilisi and natural hazard-prone areas of Georgia.
In order to assess how the new programme was implemented
at the school level and to identify any potential deficiencies
in the methodology, joint monitoring of randomly selected
pilot schools by NCC, EMD and UNICEF took place during the
month of June 2011. The feedback from the monitoring was
very positive overall as pilot teachers by and large demonstrated
skilful facilitation of interactive DRR lessons.
Feedback from the monitoring led to NCC finalizing the process
of formal integration of DRR principles and practices into the
Head of Class Hour for the academic year 2011-2012.
The decision to move to scale should have triggered further
rounds of training but this has not happened because of lack
of financial resources. For the NCC, training at scale is both
a key gap and key priority that needs to be addressed to ensure
the effective implementation of the programme nationwide 20 .
Georgian developments are noteworthy on a number of counts.
First, there is a clearly expressed recognition among principal
stakeholders that while core or traditional subjects have a
contribution to make to DRR education, there is a limit to what
they can offer given the academic and more or less insular and
sedentary culture that has grown up around the teaching of
each subject, coupled with the time constraints of a full curriculum.
The three-pronged approach adopted in Georgia of linking
sporadic core subject treatment of DRR to innovative additions
to the curriculum is one way to circumvent the problem.
‘The Head of Class Hour programme aims to go beyond the
generalities of DRR taught in core subjects and the focus on
life skills of the Civil Protection subject, and improve recognition
and understanding of natural hazards, including the potential
impacts on environment and sustainable development.
This will benefit not only students, but also families, schools
and communities at large’ (European Commission/UNICEF,
2011a, 5). ‘Incorporation of DRR in the “Head of Class Hour
programme” has been a window of opportunity for reaching
the largest number of students and filling in the existing gaps
in the National Curriculum in the most cost- effective and
sustainable manner’ (European Commission/UNICEF, 2011b, 18).
20
Ibid.
Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies from Thirty Countries