SECTION I: INTRODUCTION
SECTION I: INTRODUCTION
A call for safer schools
All children deserve safe, accessible and culturally
appropriate school buildings – regardless of class, creed,
gender or ability. Students in dark, cramped and uninspiring
classrooms should instead have positive learning spaces
that invite creativity and engagement. Communities also
want a focal point where they can congregate with pride to
support their future development.
With clear foresight, the United Nations set a Millennium
Development Goal for 2015 to bring children and youth what
they deserve – universal primary education.
A global need for schools
1.26 billion
children and youth enrolled in primary and
secondary education in 2012.
58 million
children and youth not attending primary school.
63 million
recovery. When students cannot attend school, they
are more vulnerable to abuse, neglect, violence and
exploitation.2 With so much at stake, school buildings should
be durable and functional, even after a disaster.
Though school safety has become a global concern, recent
disasters highlight the continued vulnerability of school
buildings. The 2010 Super Typhoon Megi, the 2012 Bangkok
floods, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, and other cyclones
have damaged or destroyed thousands of school buildings.
Earthquakes have been even more devastating. The 2005
Kashmir earthquake killed 17,000 students and destroyed
80 percent of schools in some areas. The 2008 Sichuan
earthquake in China killed tens of thousands of students in
the very buildings meant to protect them. Two years later,
200,000 people perished in Haiti and 80 percent of the
schools in the capital city of Port-au-Prince were damaged
or destroyed.3 In each case, the emotional loss to the
surviving community remains incalculable.
Whether a government education agency is managing
thousands of classrooms across a jurisdiction, a
humanitarian organisation is rebuilding school buildings
after a disaster, or a small non-profit is constructing a single
school in a disadvantaged community, a child’s right to
safety and survival is paramount.
school-aged youth not attending lower
secondary school.
Sources: UNSECO Institute for Statistics for year 2012;
Theunynck 2009.
Yet access to just any classroom is not enough in hazardprone places.
Although decades of building classrooms has brought
education to millions of students globally, many sit in
classrooms at risk of collapsing or being rendered unusable
when the ground shakes, floodwaters rise, or when high
winds sweep across the land. Poor design and construction
– stemming from limited resources, corruption and unfamiliar
building technologies – has made school buildings unsafe
and has led to a staggering loss of life.1
What’s at stake?
Disasters striking these unsafe schools can shatter fragile
development gains, undermining the hope placed in
education. In disasters, students, school staff and families
experience intense mental and physical trauma. Unsafe
schools can injure and even kill occupants. Months,
even years, of education can be lost as communities
shift resources away from education during their arduous
1
A community-built school in Laos, designed and constructed
without sufficient technical support, collapsed in high winds. Several
students were trapped but successfully rescued.
Photo: Save the Children.