SECTION III: PLANNING
Achieving a safe school building in a specific community
begins with the Planning Stage. During this stage, needs
and risks are identified, and school sites are chosen. It is
also at this stage that early choices about materials and
construction processes are made. These choices can
impact the quality of the school building, its fragility to local
hazards, and the ease of community maintenance and
operations.
During the Planning Stage, community assets and concerns
should be weighed against technical concerns. While
constantly balancing these two, the Planning Stage moves
safer school projects from a mere idea to solid conception,
complete with an initial strategy for achieving it. School
management committees, in collaboration with program
managers, should execute three key activities:
Government agencies provide:
• Regional hazard information
• Land for school construction
• Hazard specialities
Community planning
key activities:
•
•
•
•
Needs assessment
Feasibilty study
Draft
Implementation plan
Key activity 1: Needs assessment
The school management committee and program managers
should initiate planning by coming to agreement on what
needs a school building will address. While a safe school
building may already be a known need, other issues may
also arise that are important for creating an appropriate
learning environment. It is important to understand the
underlying factors driving these needs.
School management committees should lead the needs
assessment, which may be as simple as a community
meeting or as extensive as a community survey and factfinding process. Either way, program managers must vet
community needs against the wider community. Working
with local governments is essential.
Local community
provides:
• Community needs
• Knowledge of local
hazards
• Knowledge of
community practices
SECTION III: PLANNING
The Community
Planning Stage
School management
committee
Commitment
to safer schools
Implementing organisation
(e.g. NGO, CBO, local authority) provides:
• Program manager
to facilitate process
• Technical experts
to collaborate with
community
• Project scope
• Funds
During the Community Planning Stage, school management
committees, in collaboration with program managers, should
carry out a needs assessment, feasibility student and draft an
implementation plan.
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