School Disaster Preparedness: Challenges and Prospects

This research sought to describe the nature and extent of the challenges experienced by secondary school educators in the Province of Negros Oriental, Philippines in the implementation of the school disaster readiness initiatives. This is descriptive research that employed a structured questionnaire in the acquisition of information. The respondents are the entire population of secondary school teachers (582) from the 27 upland and coastal Negros Oriental Province secondary schools, Philippines, who willingly participated in the survey. The findings indicate the pressing need for teachers, students, parents, school administration, local government, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders to get their acts together to address the gaps in disaster preparedness implementation in schools. There is a strong call for the local and national governments to become proactive with a strong political will to intensify disaster preparedness programs and projects in schools. The interventions suggested in this study can be used by government organizations and national and international non-governmental organizations as bases for their action plans to help less fortunate countries strengthen their disaster preparedness efforts.