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

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Section 10.
Case 4:
The Case Studies
Russian Federation
Overview
Russia offers an example of the
systematic inclusion and enhancement
of DRR at full scale in the core curriculum
through a carrying subject and also
through infusion in all other subjects.
Russia also features strong regional
adaptation strategies. Basics of Life
Security is the main carrier subject
matter, with cooperation between the
Ministry of Education and the Ministry
of Emergencies to define curriculum
content. Clear cross-curricular DRR
knowledge, skills and learning outcomes
are also included in other subject matters.
Introduction
The Russian Federation is a Federal State with 83 members
of the Federation, all having a high level of autonomy in local
adaptation of Federal programmes, including in the education
system.
Regarding DRR, the full integration of DRR into school curricula
is supported by the Federal Programme Risk Reduction and
Mitigation for Natural and Technological Disasters in the Russian
Federation by 2015. The programme is the third phase of
programme development following an initial one from 2000-
2005, and a second phase from 2005-2010. The Federal
Ministry of Emergency Situations is the overall coordinator of
this federal initiative while the Ministry of Education is responsible
for implementing its education component (Government of
Russia: Integrated Federal Programme Information Service).
The programme is based on a legal and regulatory federal
framework (compulsory) and has the full support of the federal
governmental level for local implementation by municipal and
regional education structures (recognition of better implementation
by local authorities being a lesson learned from earlier phases).
The key objective of the programme is the ‘increased capacity
of students, in full obedience with regional particularities, in the
area of life security and organisation of the protection of the
population’ (ibid, 8, 30, 40, 47, 75, 79, 97).
There are eleven school years in Russia, the cumulative impact
of grades 1 to 11 is considered to comprise a full secondary
education. Primary education can be compared to grades 1
to 4, while secondary education can be compared to grades
5 to 11.
The compulsory subject matters taught to pupils throughout
the full secondary education cycle are the following: Basics of
Life Security; Biology; Civic Education; Chemistry; Fine Arts;
Foreign Languages; Geography; History; Literature; Mathematics;
Physical Education; Physics; Russian Language; Social Studies;
Technology.
DRR has a key carrying subject and is also infused across other
subjects. The key carrier is Basics of Life Security, taught at
least through grades 7 to 9 but from grades 5 to 9 in some
regions (equivalent to secondary education). An additional
facultative programme is also available for grades 10 and 11.
Basics of Life Security is mainly managed by the Ministry of
Emergency Situations. As infused in other subjects such as
Fine Arts, Technology, Physical Education, Geography and
Physics, it is managed by the Ministry of Education. There are
specific learning outcomes that must be addressed in some
subjects but there are also cross-curricula learning outcomes
(General Russian Curricula Standards) 21 .
Curriculum Development/Integration
Basics of Life Security is a subject in its own right but is included
in other subjects. As outlined in Ministry of Education
documentation 22 its organization is as follows:
Informative and methodological function: allowing all students
to receive common training on the goals, contents and
main strategies of DRR.
Organization and planning function: allotment by moments
throughout the learning of the subject matter with teaching
materials by modules organised in chapters and themes
with specific evaluations involving cross-curricula references
21
http://standart.edu.ru/catalog.aspx?CatalogId=2659
22
Methodological Letter on education of the education subject matter Basics
of Life Security http://www.adu.by/modules.php?name=News&file=categori
es&op=newindex&catid=272
Disaster Risk Reduction in School Curricula: Case Studies from Thirty Countries