This February 2016, Save the Children (SC) and ten other agencies meet with Thailand’s Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) to discuss the implementation of the recently released Comprehensive School Safety (CSS) Framework presented at the 3rd UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Japan.
SUPA71, Co., Ltd, as part of its engagement to write Thailand’s education sector snapshot, is invited to participate in the said meeting, to grasp the context of Thailand’s education sector. Dr. Parichatt Krongkant, SUPA71, Co., Ltd DRR expert and Aliyah Lou Evangelista, technical editor, attended this meeting held at UNICEF Thailand Country Office. Said meeting evaluated current efforts among stakeholders in promoting safe schools, assessed information, education, and communication materials (IEC) on disaster risk reduction, and reviewed status of educational infrastructures in Thailand.
Key activity of the meeting is assessing the current situation of Thailand’s education sector in view of the CSS framework pillars. In the education sector workgroup, where SUPA71, Co., Recent SC forge stronger ties with OBEC to promote school safety Who We Are Our Mission & Vision What We Do Where We Work Our Team Our Work Our Blog Contact Us Ltd participated, it surfaced that DRR teacher’s manual have already been disseminated but follow-up activities regarding its full use in schools have not yet been conducted. OBEC representatives, also members of the said workgroup, shared that extracurricular meetings regarding use of IEC materials are needed to be able to draft recommendations on CSS implementation.
The recent Tsunami in 2004 in the South and the flash foods in the North which has destroyed many schools in Thailand, are testaments that the lack of preparation in natural calamities and disasters during emergencies is a central issue in Thailand’s education sector. Much attention was said to be needed to address these, while trying to resolve them.
The meeting ended with stakeholders engaged on the goal to strengthen institutional capacity of Thailand’s education through CSS. This initiative is part of a project funded by UNICEF currently being operationalized by Save the Children on “Strengthening Institutional Capacity of Thailand’s Education and DRR Stakeholders on Comprehensive School Safety Framework” being implemented until April of 2016. This project is in close-collaboration with OBEC.
Representative from OBEC head giving her updates on current DRR efforts of the Thai government.
DRR expert, Dr. Parichatt Krongkant of SUPA71, Co., Ltd reviewing the IEC materials.
Presentation at UNICEF meeting.
Presentation at UNICEF meeting.