Minister of Education Dr. Aishath Ali has highlighted the importance of ensuring the safety of schools in the event of a natural disaster. The education minister made the remarks in a message released on the occasion of World Tsunami Awareness Day.
The education minister stated schools often serve as safe shelters or evacuation centres during natural disasters such as tsunamis. Therefore, she noted it is very important that schools are built for this purpose.
The minister also highlighted the importance of preparing students, teachers and parents for a natural disaster, by providing disaster management training. In this regard, she noted the importance of preparing, endorsing and implementing school emergency operation plans, under which fire drills and evacuation drills will be conducted regularly.She added National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is working on strengthening the emergency response capacity in the atolls through community-based disaster management programmes, which are partaken by schools as well.
108 Maldivians lost their lives in the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, including 32 children aged between 3 and 15 years. The education minister noted the education sector of the Maldives suffered a loss of USD 15.5 million due to the Tsunami, with 114 schools across the Maldives suffering damages. She noted 31 schools suffered major damages, including 9 schools which were completely destroyed.
Education Minister Dr. Aishath Ali further noted 25,593 students were affected by the Tsunami, including 5,437 students whose studies were disrupted due to damages to their schools. She added 1,321 students were forced to move to temporary shelters following the Tsunami.
The World Tsunami Awareness Day is marked to increase awareness about the Tsunami among people living in low-lying coastal areas and small islands. The World Tsunami Awareness Day encourages the development of national and community-level, local disaster risk reduction strategies to save more lives against disasters.