The Sunday Gleaner

ARTS&EDUCATION
www.jamaica-gleaner.com

JANUARY 22, 2017

SECTION E

If you can’t fly, then run; if you can’t run, then walk; ifyou can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, youhave to keep moving forward.
Martin Luther King Jr

PHOTO BY AMITABH SHARMA

Masaki Nakatsuji, vice-principal of the Shichigo Elementary School in Sendai, shows the extent of damage done by theMarch 2011 tsunami. The red shaded area denotes the neighbourhoods that were innudated.

Earlylessons indisaster
preparedness
Amitabh
SharmaCONTRIBUTORTHE YEAR 1907is buried somewhere in history– not anywhere in
the living memoryof most people –but on January 14of that year, on asunny Monday
afternoon, theEarth shook, andwithin the spaceof 20 seconds,
three shocks
reducedmost ofdowntown
Kingston
to rubble.
TheMasaki
Nakatsuji,
vice-principalof Shichigo
ElementarySchool,Sendai.

earthquake of 1907 has been
described as one of the worst
natural disasters recorded inhistory. This year marks 110
years since that earthquake
struck Jamaica’s capital – but it
is a memory that is buried andforgotten in reams of yellowing
pages in the annals of time.
But neither Mother Nature,
nor her fury, has changed, andthere are lessons to be learnt: tobe prepared in the event of suchdisasters.
Around 13,000 kilometresaway from Jamaica, in Sendai
city, Japan, children are learning
those valuable lessons at school.
Shichigo Elementary
School, the third largest schoolin the city, was affected by the2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The school, post the 2011
earthquake and tsunami, wasnominated by the ministry ofeducation for disaster-management training. The curriculum was developed by theteachers in the school,

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E2THE SUNDAY GLEANER, JANUARY 22, 2017 | ARTS & EDUCATIONPHOTO BY AMITABH SHARMAA Grade 2 student of Shichigo Elementary School, Sendai, completes aform on disaster prepardeness. On the desk is a poster of the route
they take to get home, while on the Stick-it notes are the suggestions
given by students.

EARLYCONTINUED FROM E1
based on their experiences.
In second grade, students learn how
to prepare and save themselves when
an earthquake strikes – they scanned
posters of photos of the streets of theroute they take to and from theschool.
The topic was to look at possible
dangers in transit and each student
wrote their ideas on PostIt notes. At
the end of the teaching session, theteacher asked the students to read fromtheir PostIt notes, which were pasted
on the posters for later reference.
“The aim is to have a curriculumthat can be adapted in different locations in Japan and training can begiven on different scenarios,” Masaki
Nakatsuji, vice-principal of theschool.
Grade two students were divided
into groups as they studied a poster
with a photo of their route about
which they had to give their input on
how they would react and save themselves if an earthquake struck. “I will
run to a safe location and hide there,”

said one student. Her classmate
added, “I will run away from the danger.” And another girl said that she
would cover her head with her schoolbag. “I will run away from the light
post and hide in a safe place,” wasanother student’s suggestion.
The students are taught the risks anddangers of natural disasters but areencouraged to be calm and positive.

MORE EMPHASIS
Students of Grade four focus onsafety and talk about solutions to theproblem.
In a class, students filled out worksheets on the importance of protecting
themselves at all times and being
aware of their surroundings, and each
had their recommendations. “Theseexercises,” Nakatsuji said, “are anintegral part of the school’s curriculum, and especially after the March2011 Tsunami, we are giving moreemphasis to disaster preparedness andmanagement.”
As a part of the exercise, students
are taken on field trips, along theroutes they take from home to school,
and familiarised with the shelters andspots where they can take refuge

Grade 4 students of the Shichigo Elementary School, Sendai, attend a disaster-prepardeness class.
should an earthquake strike when
they are in transit.
There are shops that have designatedshelters for children on the premises.
Children also learn steps to take if
there is torrential rain. There are twobasic lessons that are reiterated. when
there is an earthquake, they hide underneath the desks and are then evacuatedfrom the schoolyard. In the case of atsunami threat, the students are evacuated to the third floor.
The school actively collaborates
with parents and the neighbouringcommunities. Once or twice in theschool year, Nakatsuji informed, they

have one drill each: to check theevacuation route in the event of anearthquake, and evacuation in case ofa tsunami.
Students also participate in fire drills.
The school has allocated 30 hours in theyear for grades one and two, and 35 hours
in the year for grade three and above fordisaster preparedness and training.
Shichigo Elementary School isdeveloping a national curriculum on
disaster preparedness based on its
first-hand experiences with the deadly
earthquake and tsunami that left morethan 20,000 people dead in Sendai
and surrounding regions.

“We learnt a lesson,” said Tomoho
Takahashi, principal. “And we aredetermined to pass down these lessons to the next generation so thatthey are better informed andequipped.”
amitabh.sharma@hotmail.comThe visit to Japan was part of‘Pacific Islands and Caribbean
Journalists’ Programme’ organised by the Tokyo-based
Association for the Promotion ofInternational Cooperation(APIC), with support from theForeign Press Centre, Japan.

NOTICE
PURSUANT TO SECTION 8(10) (a) OF THE CREDITREPORTING ACT, 2010(“the Act”)
This serves to advise the public ingeneral that effective

January 31, 2017

The University of theWest Indies, Mona
will be accessing or exchanging
CREDIT INFORMATION on its
customers as permitted under Section 8 (1)& (2) (n) of the Act toCRIF NM CREDIT ASSURE LIMITEDA Credit Bureau licensed under Section 4of the said Act