“One, two, three!” The Four teachers lifted the stretcher holding an “injured” pupil.

The event was a field practical session for Training of Trainers on School Disaster Preparedness on Tsunami, organized by UNDP’s Disaster Response and Recovery Facility in July 2019 at Kolatori Government Primary School, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

According to a research article by Journal of Geography & Natural Disasters, Bangladesh is currently ranked as one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries. Approximately ninety seven percent of the total land area and all inhabitants are at risk of multiple hazards including tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, riverbank and coastal erosion. Bangladeshi communities have significant experience of frequent tropical cyclones and floods. However, the recurrence interval of great earthquakes and tsunamis is very long in the northern Bay of Bengal region as such, people may not perceive earthquakes and tsunamis as major hazards, but the main hazard lies in potentials for rare but catastrophic high-magnitude earthquake and tsunami events without adequate preparations by communities.

In the light of this, UNDP’s Disaster Response and Recovery Facility funded by the Government of Japan organized a two-day ToT for schoolteachers, School Management Committee members and Head Teachers from 16 schools within Cox’s Bazar District. With two representatives from each school, the trainees went through theoretical and field practical sessions on what tsunamis is, how to respond in an event of one, how to ensure staff and students are protected and how to evacuate the injured and the physically challenged.

Facilitators of the training, Shah Zahidur Rahman and Arif Abdullah Khan, both from UNDP, supported by volunteers from Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) said the training is to create awareness amongst students, school authorities and by extension, the society regarding school disaster preparedness, create awareness on structural and non-structural vulnerability of educational institutions and risks measures as well as motivate school authorities to develop evacuation plans and initiate mock demonstrations on school safety and evacuation.  They also revealed that in the coming months, there would be an assessment of participating schools’ preparedness and the school that demonstrates the highest level of tsunami preparedness will be crowned the “champion school” for the project.

For some of the trainees, it is the first time of participating in such a training. “I have attended other trainings in the past, but this is the first time I am being trained on protecting my pupils in a disaster” says 58-year-old Shirin Jahan, Head Teacher at Kolatori Government Primary School.  According to her, she feels empowered, knowing how to evacuate an injured or physically challenged pupil in the face of danger.

40-year-old Osman Kamal, assistant teacher in Government Primary School Mocheshkhali revealed that the training made him understand why tsunamis occur, why and how he should evacuate his pupils to higher grounds in case of one.

Encouraging participants at the opening of the ToT, Shahidul Azam, Assistant District Primary Education Officer of Cox’s Bazar said the Bangladeshi government in collaboration with UNDP take disaster preparedness with the seriousness it deserves and as such, the trainees should listen attentively as they are expected to  step down the training to teachers and students in their respective schools.

Speaking on behalf of UNDP, Mir Ali Asgar, Programme Coordinator, UNDP Cox’s Bazar Sub-Office re-emphasized that UNDP is working on different types of disaster preparedness and will continue to do so.  He was delighted at the selection of trainees as he believes as teachers, they will not only pass across the preparedness messages to their students but also the community.

Following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the government of Bangladesh incorporated tsunami hazard into its disaster risk reduction program because the event raised concerns on the risk of tsunami hazard in Bangladesh.