In opening the 2011 Public Symposium on Educationalcountries and regions around the world, we have received

Research, I would like to say a few words on behalf ofcountless numbers of words of encouragement and offers

the organizer of the Symposium. Ladies and Gentlemen,of help or helping hands that were extended to us, and to

thank you very much for coming today. All thethis cordial assistance from the international community,

principals, vice principals and school staff, members

I would like to take this opportunity to express ourof university faculty, boards of education, education

deepest gratitude.

centers, municipal bodies, as well as participants fromNPOs and the private sector

we have more than 350

The great earthquake was an unprecedented calamity for

I thank you all for

Japan. More than 25,000 dead, missing or injured andtaking time out of your busy schedule to attend thismore than 300,000 houses fully or partially collapsed

symposium. Also, we have Vice Minister of Education,and the direct damage to the social infrastructure andCulture, Sports, Science and Technology, Mr. Kii andhousing is estimated to be somewhere between 16 to

Mr. Tang Qian, Assistant Director General for Education

25 trillion yen. With schools, 900 students and facultyfrom UNESCO, and Mr. Yuan Zhenguo, President of themembers were killed or injured and nearly 8,000 schools

National Institute of Education Sciences of China, andwere damaged, out of which 200 public schools need

Mr. Kim Tae-Wan, President of the Korean Educational

rebuilding or large scale construction.

attendees from all around Japan

Development Institute. Thank you for coming. We also
have His Excellency Ambassador Khalil Hassan of the

In such circumstances, we received a lot of warm words

Kingdom of Bahrain and representatives from 15 otherof encouragement and support from not only withincountries around the world. I thank you all from theJapan but also the international community and based onbottom of my heart for your attendance.

that the local people have made strenuous efforts and are
now steadily moving toward reconstruction. Because ofFirst of all, concerning the Great East Japan Earthquake,the radiation leak from the nuclear power plants, there

I would like to express my deepest sympathies forare still regions where people continue to be evacuated,

those who became victims and I want to express mybut through efforts of various people, all of the children

condolences for those who lost their lives and to theare now able to receive school education in one form orfamilies that are left behind. After the earthquake, fromanother.

that we will be able to gain important insight for future
We are going to hear about those specific efforts andeducational policy through this Symposium. Thank youwhat the people have done, what their feelings were. Wevery much, ladies and gentlemen.

want to record and remember this event and publicize
it domestically and internationally so that from theeducation practice under extreme conditions, we can gain
insight about the future school education or education
policy. It is against this backdrop that we are holding this
symposium today.
So, we have, from the affected areas, Mr. Takeshi Inoue,
Principal of the Nakahama Elementary School, Miyagi
Prefecture and Ms. Yoshie Tamura, Principal of Sabara
Elementary School, Fukushima Prefecture and Mr. Teiki
Nakaya, previous Superintendent of Schools of Miyako
City and Mr. Yoshishige Suzuki, previous Principal of the
Namie High School in Fukushima Prefecture. So, they
are going to talk about how the schools responded andin the panel discussion we will hear in more depth what
their experiences were. Also, from overseas we have
Senior Policy Analyst, Education and Training Policy
Division of OECD, Ms. Miho Taguma to explain about
the experiences of those who have been hit by disasters
outside Japan.
In addition to holding this Symposium, the NIER has
established a participatory common website to support

to operate schools and how to give instruction. And also,

research and surveys on damages to educational facilities
and efforts made towards resumption of instruction andwhat issues they are facing, how they are dealing with it
and keeping records of them.
I hope that the efforts and feelings of the people involvedin education in the affected areas will be shared by many
attending this symposium today and that this would
help further facilitate the rebuilding effort. I also hopeMr. Tokunaga, Mr. Yuan, Mr. Kim, ladies and gentlemen,that in my own country China, during the Sichuan

it is a real pleasure for me to be here today with you

earthquake in May 2008, more than 7,000 school rooms

at this important symposium on the Great East Japan

collapsed, killing some 10,000 children. Those who

Earthquake and Schools. I would like to thank Mr.

survived saw their access to education disrupted and in

Tokunaga, Director General of NIER for inviting me to

many cases are experiencing long term psychologicalattend this event. By taking the initiative to organize thiseffects. Governments have a clear role to play inevent, the Japanese National Institute for Educational

preventing hazards from turning into disasters, but it is

Policy Research has demonstrated its commitment

also crucial that communities be taught how to respondto building education systems that are resilient. I

when a disaster strikes. Here in Japan, the earthquake

congratulate you for this. I am also pleased to see Mr.

and the Tsunami that struck in March are estimated to

Yuan, President of the National Institute of Education

have killed 25,000 people. 430,000 people lost their

Sciences of China and Mr. Kim, President of Korean

homes and 120,000 were displaced, many lived in areas

Educational Development Institute here.

exposed to radiation. These are terrifying numbers but it
could have been worse. Schools in Japan are earthquake-

UNESCO is pleased to see that education research

proof and many children who survived the earthquake

institutes in Japan, China and Korea working together.

in Japan did so because they were in school when the

The three countries in East Asia can certainly play adisaster struck.

leading role in the development of education in the wholeThis shows that the preventive procedures that Japan had
years we have seen a steady increase in the frequency

put in place had a great positive impact. Not only wereof disasters in this world, both natural and man-made,the children at school in a safe and earthquake proof

and as we have seen in recent years in Asia, they can bebuilding, they had also been taught in school how to act

very devastating. Disasters affect whole communities,

when a disaster happens. This is disaster risk reduction

destroying infrastructure, buildings and vital institutions.

in practice and it is imperative that we remind ourselves
how important it is for reducing risk and saving lives

Education systems are not spared. Let me remind you

for preventing the interruption of education and forsupporting recovery. Ladies and Gentlemen, after the
Sichuan earthquake, UNESCO worked closely withIn the coming years, UNESCO intends to ensure that

the Chinese government with the Chinese Minister ofdisaster risk reduction is well integrated into both

Education and the Education Department and in the

education for sustainable development and climate

province to build capacities in disaster preparedness andchange education with a particular emphasis on

response.

strengthening preparedness. I would like to thank Japanfor its support in this endeavor. Ladies and Gentlemen,

If education systems are not able to respond adequately,

great progress has been made in the field of disaster

prepared to respond to disaster, there can be no long-risk reduction and education over the last few years.

term education for all. This is why disaster risk reduction

Countries such as Japan have played a major role inis also a crucial part of the sustainable development
agenda, of which climate change education is an
important element. The role of education in reducing theand attention to the importance of this essential issue byrisk associated with disaster is as you know obvious ingovernments and donors alike.

various international commitments and the frameworks,
including the Hyogo framework for action. UNESCO

Safe schools are a precondition for long term sustainable

helps member states to translate these commitments into

education for all. This symposium will help us to takereality. In line with the targets set at major events such

this agenda forward. I can assure you that UNESCO

as 2009 Global platform for Disaster Risk Reduction;is very committed to working with our member states

we carry out national assessments of education facilities,

including Japan to give this issue the attention it

develop and implement action plans for safer schools anddeserves. I thank you for your attention. Thank you.

include disaster risk reduction in school curricula.
For instance, early this year, together with other agencies,
we assessed safe school initiatives in ten countries. This
study would eventually lead to the development of aguideline or guidance document for global school risk
assessment. At this year’s global platform for disasterrisk reduction, UNESCO organized a feature event on
speakers from various countries. The event consolidates
support for three main components of a safe school
policy management and education and curricula. In
collaboration with UNICEF and with support from Japan,
UNESCO is undertaking a comprehensive study on the
integration of disaster risk reduction in school curricula
in more than 20 countries. At the conclusion of the
project, we intend to make available a set of guidelines
for policy makers, governments, ministries and partnerorganizations for developing an effectively integrating
disaster risk reduction into school curricula.

Mr. Tokunaga, Mr. Tang, Mr. Kim, and ladies andEarthquakes, Tsunamis and typhoons occur frequently.

gentlemen, I am very grateful of NIER inviting me

Japan took the lead in doing research on how to deal

to participate in the symposium on earthquake andwith natural disasters. For example, the word Tsunami

schools. I am very happy to share our experiences fromin English is originally a Japanese word. Also, in terms

China. First of all, on behalf of the National Instituteof disaster prevention education, Japan has a wealthof Educational Sciences of China, I would like to pay

of experiences to learn. Both government and citizens

my respects to all the people involved in renovating theplace emphasis on education for disaster prevention. The

earthquake-stricken schools for their strenuous efforts

community produces handbooks and distribute themafter the East Japan Earthquake.

to the citizens free of charge; and in the media such asradio, T.V. and newspapers, knowledge about disaster

The former China National Institute for Educational

prevention is often carried.

Research was established in 1941, and this year (in2011) its name was changed to the National InstituteAs far as I know, the Japanese Ministry of Education,of Educational Sciences of China. It is a national level

Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has

institute directly under the Ministry of Education,

formulated a disaster response plan concerning disaster

undertaking theoretical studies, policy studies andcounter measures and have produced various materials

planning of educational research for the entire nation.

for instruction of disaster-proof education. Also, mostIt plays an important role in facilitating educational

schools have had systematic education on disaster

policymaking, advancing educational theories andprevention and organized drills for the students. With

guiding educational practices. In that regard I think weseismic standards for school buildings and curriculum forare similar to the NIER of Japan. That could be why wesuch education and training for the faculty, it is fair to say

have always had good relations, shared common intereststhat Japan has developed an adequate disaster prevention

concerning educational issues and promoted various

system and corresponding education system. Therefore

forms of exchange. Now we have the honor to also

when there is a disaster in Japan, people can respondexchange with our Korean counterparts from the Koreancalmly. We’re deeply impressed by the orderliness

Educational Development Institute.

that Japanese people have demonstrated after the greatearthquake in Japan.

I think this is a very meaningful symposium. First, wecame to learn from your experiences. As we know, Japan

Second, we are ready to share our experiences. In

is prone to natural disasters for geographic reasons.

May 2008, Sichuan was stricken by a magnitude 8

Ministry of the Chinese Central Government introduced
various countermeasures in the first instance. Our
institute organized the psychology experts to put
together counseling plans; and then the experts and I
visited the affected areas many times and assisted in
the reconstruction after the earthquake. Also we offered
training to the administrative people and teachers,
provided counseling for the children, and conductedfollow-up surveys of rebuilding efforts. Comparedwith rebuilding the school buildings, rebuilding theteachers and children’s mental health are more complex
and important. China, in terms of reconstruction, wasable to respond very quickly and coordinate the efforts
effectively with an integrated plan. There are detailed
more description in the proceedings to share with you.
Third, we wish to strengthen our cooperation. In an
era when economic integration is globalized andinformation is spread rapidly, international exchange
and cooperation has opened more pathways and shortcuts for development of various sectors. In the faceof global warming, recurrence of disasters, etc., whatrole education can play is an important issue for us
to explore, and exchange and cooperation as well as
joint research is undoubtedly a short-cut to resolve
the issue. As China, Japan and Korea are neighboring
countries with strong historical ties,similar geographic
environment, culture and tradition of respect for theteachers provided us with incomparable advantage forour collaborative study on educational issues. I hope that
we could develop approach to joint research on major
issues or difficult issues that we are confronted with,so as to promote educational development in each of
our countries. The exchange of thoughts and ideas willdefinitely inspire education reform and development in
the countries. Finally I wish the symposium a complete
success. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I would like toOverall, large magnitude earthquakes are occurring

convey my deepest gratitude for inviting me to the 2011

frequently in neighboring Japan and China, like the 2008

Public Symposium on Educational Research on theearthquake in China, the Sichuan province, and the 2011

Great East Japan Earthquake and Schools: Innovations

earthquakes in China's Southwest region and also inin Schools, Administration and Educational Instruction.

various other regions of the world. In this summer, in the

The principals, vice principals and faculties, presidents

rainy season, in Seoul Korea, there was a torrential rain.

of universities and all the staffers of the schools andAnd, I belong to KEDI, which is located at the foot ofalso municipal governments, and Ambassador and theMountain Umyeon in the south region of Seoul. Because

staff of the embassies in Japan are participating in thisof the flood and torrential rain, our institute was also

symposium, therefore I would like to extend my heartfelt

affected, the broadcasting studio was flooded and thegratitude to all of you.

blackout also occurred. Now, we are using the emergency
power generator to supply power.

Now, I would like to thank the National Institute for
Educational Policy Research for allowing me to speak

In Korea, Korea is believed to be located in a relatively

in this great event. It is my honor and pleasure to takesafe region when compared with the countries situatedpart in this meaningful conference, which is held forin the Pacific Rim earthquake zones. However, recent

education innovation in the disaster area affected by thestudies show that the number of earthquakes in Korea has

Earthquake.

also increased. There were on average, 32 earthquakes
annually from 1999 to 2010. In this year 2011, a total ofMore than six months have passed since the devastating

45 earthquakes had been observed by September. This

March earthquake in Japan. The damages were enormous

is an increase of about 1.4 times more than the previous

and the Japanese economy has been hugely affected.

12 months averages. Thus far, there were 8 earthquakes

More importantly, due to the sudden catastrophe, thereof 3.0 magnitudes or higher and six occurrences were

were numerous negative effects on young students,

more ‘felt earthquakes’. Therefore, there is a potential

the leaders of tomorrowboth physically andthat Korea could also suffer losses in life and property

psychologically. I would like to offer my condolences to

as a result of an earthquake in the near future. So, there

all of those victims. I hope that recovery will be achieved

is an urgent need to develop measures to counter such

soon, so that all the affected people will be able to lead

accidents.

their lives stably.
Because Korea is considered to rest in comparatively

safe region, Korea is not very prepared for earthquakes.

devices now.

Currently 24% of Korea's school facilities are at least 30
years old, which in terms of the area is about 18.5 million

In this context, I believe today’s symposium is all theof square meters of school facilities. Only 13% of all

more important. Learning how Japan, China and othereducational facilities are earthquake-resistant, based onnations plan and implement their school policies andthe new 2008 standards.

systems to prepare for natural disasters is essential as
Korea establishes its own disaster preparedness policies.

In April of 2009, consequently the Ministry of Education,
Science and Technology announced “The Standards forOnce again, I thank the National Institute for Educational

Earthquakes Resistant School Designs” in accordance

Policy Research for hosting this valuable event. I hopewith the law. Earthquake-resistance reinforcement

the symposium will provide a platform to share ideas

projects were pushed ahead for a total of 41 schools.

for in-depth research with NIER, NIES, KEDI and
UNESCO. All of these are close partners; we would likeIn addition, earthquake-resistance projects are being

to share ideas through this symposium today. Foremost,promoted along with the “Green School” programs.

I hope through the active discussion today, that school

KEDI is pleased to present this year’s earthquake-education system for disaster preparedness will advanceresistance assessment of schools and guidelines forforward. Thank you very much for your kind attention.

strengthening earthquake resistance. In the future,
Korean Central government plans to invest 50 million
dollars per year in earthquake resistance reinforcement
projects for 120 schools. Moreover, a world-leading “ZeroEmission School” for a high school is now planned
for the Jincheon Reform City in North Chungcheong
Province. The school is also to be the “Best Safe School”
built with a steel-framed structure. Although there is along way to go, these efforts to reinforce school facilities
should serve as the first big step in protecting students
against earthquakes and similar catastrophes. In addition
to such efforts concerning structural security, orderly
student evacuation methods in the event of earthquakes
also need to be thoroughly developed and practiced. This
year, the government has produced and made available
on its website an instructional video on earthquake
preparedness, allowing for its active utilization in natural
disaster prevention education.
Not only is Korea no longer safe from earthquakes,
we cannot know what other natural calamities willfind us through global warming and climate change. In
order to guarantee a safe and enjoyable learning school
environment for students who will someday lead thefuture, we need to assemble the associated systems andThank you for the introduction. I am Takashi Kii, Vice

education to facilitate the acceptance of students in

Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andother schools to provide text books free of charge toTechnology. We had the session at the Diet at the Lower
House. I apologize for being late.

enrollment procedures and school expense subsidies.
Furthermore, in an effort to facilitate the support in

In opening the 2011 Public Symposium on Educational

the afflicted areas, we have established a portal site to

Research, I would like to say a few words. First, for those

help affected students’ learning. We also put together

who lost their lives in the Great East Japan earthquake,

emergency proposal for developing school facilities

I want to express my condolences and to those who arefollowing the earthquake in March. So, we haveintroduced various measures to provide support to theexpress my sympathies. Also, we have received a greatschools and the children. Moreover, we are reviewing

support from around the world to help provide relief

the disaster education and disaster management, into the victims and to assist with the reconstruction. I

addition to putting together measures to promote school

would like to take this opportunity to express our deepest

development that is rooted in the community. So, based

gratitude.

on the precious lessons we have learnt from the disaster,
we are trying to input that into developing our future

In the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake,school education.

schools were also severely damaged. Not only were
the facilities and equipment damaged but the faculty

In this symposium, we are going to hear from the schools

members became victims themselves and they hadthat are afflicted by the earthquake and they are goingdifficulty in trying to survive. In the schools in the
afflicted areas in the vicinity, many students had to be

Hopefully, these voices from the frontline of educationintermittently transferred in and out because they lost

will be conveyed worldwide, and from the education

their houses and many of the children also lost theirpractice in extremely difficult conditions, I hope thatfamily members and their relatives.

we will be able to gain important insight into future
education policy.

With that kind of a very harsh reality in front of us, at
MEXT, in order to provide assistance to the afflicted

And through this symposium, I hope that we will beareas, we dispatched our officials and experts to theable to promote the environment in which students inafflicted sites, and instructed the municipal boards ofthe affected areas can learn without worries, and wesincerely hope that the strenuous efforts to overcome thedamage will lead to the opening up of a much brighter
future for the children. With that I conclude my remarkson the opening of the Public Symposium. Thank you forall of your efforts, thank you.

Born in Shimonita Town, Gunma Prefecture. Principalof Yamamoto Municipal Nakahama Elementary School,
Miyagi Prefecture, since 2010. When the earthquake
occurred on March 11, he and everyone else at the school
evacuated to the rooftop and they were all safe. The schoolbuilding, however, was almost completely destroyed,
and he decided to temporarily set up the operationof Nakahama Elementary School in the building of
Sakamoto Elementary School, which is located between
mountains and remained unaffected by tsunami. Mr.
Inoue has been making efforts to resume the operationof his school in its own building, while he faces many
two principals, two homeroom teachers per class, andtwo school anthems coexist in one school building.

Born in Date City, Fukushima Prefecture. Principalof Fukushima Municipal Sabara Elementary School,
Fukushima Prefecture, since 2009. After the accident at
Tepco’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, many
children in neighbor municipalities transferred from theirschools to Sabara Elementary School, as there is a largescale evacuation center nearby. The number of children
transferring in on April 6, the first day of school for
2011, counted as many as 75, exceeding 28, the numberof children enrolled in the school. In response to sucha sudden increase of children, she decided to hire three
additional full-time instructors, and use an arts and crafts
room for regular classes. Furthermore, she brought in 28
pairs of desks and chairs from a nearby school to resolvelack of those school equipments.

Born in Ofunato City, Iwate Prefecture. Former
superintendent of Miyako City’s Board of Education in
Nakaya showed a manual for “Establishing an Evacuation
system for School Children at the Time of Tsunami” andasked schools to respond accordingly. Also, he took the
initiative in creating and adopting the educational DVD
on Miyako Bay by joining the review committee andhaving the teaching staff participate in the working groupfor creating educational material for tsunami prevention(edited by Professor Shigeki Sakai of Iwate University).
In addition, Mr. Nakaya established tsunami shelters (forinitial evacuation of school children) at more than 100
sites in the city to ensure safety of children and students
on their way to school. Furthermore, he suggested tocreate “tsunami karuta” and recommended schools to be
newly constructed to install storage heaters, which havebeen highly regarded by people in evacuation centers.

Born in Ishikawa Town, Fukushima Prefecture. Principalof Fukushima Prefectural Koriyama High School. Whenthe earthquake occurred, he was serving as principal
at Namie High School, another public high school in
the prefecture. In the aftermath of the earthquake andthe following nuclear accidents in Fukushima, schools
have adopted the form of “satellite” classes in vacantclassrooms or facilities of other public schools in theprefecture, so that students in the high schools locatedwithin the 30 km radius around the nuclear power plants
can continue with their schoolwork without transferring
to another school. Therefore, students at Namie HighSchool (including Tsushima branch) have been divided
into two cooperative schools, Adachi High School in
Nihonmatsu City and Yoshima High School in Iwaki
City. Mr. Suzuki has made contributions to the operationof the high school in such hard circumstances.

The title of my talk is ‘Overcoming the Disaster’. At

reflected in the title that we had to overcome so many

Nakahama Elementary School, the students and thefacets of the disaster. First, I will explain the disasterand second, I will explain the background of why weevacuated to the rooftop and what considerations we

big wave there were too many obstacles that we had tomade for the children, and then moving from evacuation

overcome. That is what we learnt. So, that feeling isto the starting of the school year and what we did in
actual practice after the school year began. We hope that
this will be of some use to you.

The Great East Japan Earthquake hit on March 11 andour school Nakahama Elementary School was locatedalong the coast in the South Eastern part of Miyagi
Prefecture. We were directly hit by the Tsunami; wewere near the border with the Fukushima Prefecture (Slide

this large scale.

We had 59 students at that time and based on theinformation received after the earthquake, we decided
we would not be able to reach the secondary evacuation
centre so we evacuated to the rooftop of the schoolbuilding, which is a two-story building. In addition to
the students and faculty, the parents and town employees
and residents also evacuated, so the total number was 90.
Fortunately, everyone survived and we were also able
to confirm the safety of the students who were absent
or handed over to their parents. So, all the 59 students
registered at the school were safe. However, more than
90% of the homes or houses belonging to these parents
were washed away from the foundations. So, we decided
to co-locate our school in Sakamoto Elementary School
to resume our teaching, and to resume our classes (Slide3). This is the situation of the damage at the Yamamoto
town (Slide 4). The magnitude of the damage is beyond
the school building was suddenly isolated within great
body of water. This was when the fourth wave turned
into the backwash (Slide 5).

It was around 5 p.m., March 11. At this time, we wereon the rooftop (Slide 6). We were preparing to spend
the night there. We experienced very large horizontal
motion which we have never experienced before and we
felt that the great earthquake off the Miyagi coast had

school building (Slide 9). The Tsunami came up to thethan we had anticipated. So, we were broadcasting in

dot line.So, from the east side the Tsunami tore throughthe school and we had the T.V. turned on and we heard

the building and sea water reached up to the ceilingthat a giant Tsunami would arrive in ten minutes andSakamoto Junior High School which had been designatedas the secondary evacuation centre was twenty minutes
away on foot for children. So, we decided to evacuate
to the rooftop. The school building was sturdy enoughto withstand the earthquake and the Tsunami but wewere isolated and we had to spend the night in the attic
warehouse in the cold and very fortunately early nextmorning we were rescued by the Self Defense Forcehelicopters (Slide 7).
The bold line indicates the original evacuation route(Slide 8). However it was going to take twenty minutes
for small children to get to this location as we hadalready tested and knew this.
As the arrow shows, the backwash was coming fromthe reverse direction, but the gymnasium protected thewindow on the second floor (Slide 10) and only therooftop, where we stayed, was safe.
This is from the north side (Slide 11). The glass windows
were severely broken and the gymnasium was heavily
destroyed by the backwash but, again, it protected theor became unusable. Classrooms and blackboards were
washed away, and nothing was left. A blackboard wasonce here (Slide 14).
This is the storage facility on the rooftop (Slide 15), andthis is a unique structure of our school. So we evacuatedto the facility to avoid the direct hit of the Tsunami andwe also spent the night there. All of the doors could be
opened by the master key. I think it is important that you
have one key that can open all the doors. So, this is inside
the storage facility (Slide 16), and we used whatever we
could to try to withstand the cold, the severe cold and it

We were isolated after the Tsunami had passed, so I
explained immediately in very short sentences that wewere going to spend the night there: I said, ‘We will stayhere.’ We have no food.’ ‘We have no water. ’ It will
get very cold.’ But hang in there until the morning.’ The
warm sun will certainly set tomorrow morning.’ These
were the short messages that I conveyed to the children
and the people in the community. So, I had to give themharsh reality but with these words we were able to make

it through the night (Slide 17).
It was bitterly cold and there were many aftershocks andchildren trusted us and they acted commendably. We
were very fortunate that the blankets were found fromthe first floor of the gym, they were not washed away
and they were sealed. So, they were completely dry even

The reason why we evacuated to the rooftop was because
we had the sense of risk being near the mouth of the riverand in the hazard area of Tsunami. We all had that sharedunderstanding. If you remember, there was an earthquake
off the coast of Sanriku region two days before theGreat Earthquake and we did an evacuation. When we
evacuated, I raised a question to the faculty and the next
day we reviewed our manual with the entire faculty. It
was stated that it would take twenty minutes for children

red box, and it says it would take children twenty minutes(Slide 19). So the ‘twenty minutes’ was a decisive
factor. I knew the school building was sturdy because
when the Ward Mayor had visited us the previous year
for the rooftop facility, we had inspected it with the Vice
Principal the previous year and I had clearly remembered
what I told him, that ‘Even if there was a tsunami, we
could evacuate here and prevent water and wind fromhitting us.’
We did not let the children see the moment of the
Tsunami strike and the teachers went to the classrooms
to collect clothing to warm up the children and theemergency hoods were used by all the children. They
helped to keep the children warm and they could also be
used as pillows and they could give a sense of ease to
the children. So, it was a great piece of hood that becamevery useful. Next day we sent an advance team to makesure that we would not show bodies to the children on
the evacuation route (Slide 2 ).

was to protect children’s lives, and then we made a splitsecond decision to carry all the important documents to
The initial response is quite important for saving lives

the rooftop. By protecting student records, health checkafter a Tsunami (Slide 22). Handing over children to
their parents at this timing presents more risks. Youor stamps, we were able to minimize confusion in terms

have to keep evacuation simple, but please do not takeof children’s transfer and their enrollment in junior highschools, and transfer of faculty members. The facultyover the children to their parents; we did actually hand

members were the victims themselves and they wereover several children to their parents. So, how should

also the operators of the evacuation centre. They had

Principals make that decision? I decided that – I said

their cars washed away; they could not return to theirto the parents, while taking their opinions and feelings

homes, so they had to live in the evacuation centre along

into consideration: ‘You can go and evacuate on yourwith the local residents. We were able to contribute toown, but please do not go back to your home, go straightsmooth operation of the evacuation centre, while staying

to Sakamoto Junior High School.’ That is what I told

and working with the residents there. Also, we were

the parents who came to pick up their children before

able to live with the children until the day of opening

handing them over.

ceremony for the new school year and we were able tohelp them restore the rhythm of their daily lives. The

That is quite important and now I think that the handoverchildren’s smiles, greetings and the laughter cheered upof children to parents should be after the school has

the residents. So, we had the regular morning meetings,

protected the children’s lives and moved them to a safe

we checked their health, we did stretch exercises andplace, and it is important that everyone is informed

communicated messages and in the mornings except forthrough manuals how the school will act. And you haveweekends we conducted education programs with theto build up the relationship based on trust between therotation of faculty and also we had consultation provided

schools and parents or else evacuation actions takenby the faculty at any time of the day and we always hadby the parents would be complicated. Now, we haveat least three counselors on duty.

the local residents evacuating to the schools at the lastevacuation policy of the school is and ask for their cooperation.
There is no best way to evacuate in terms of how you
actually evacuate. You have to look at the informationthat you garner in the extreme conditions and also
information collected through the daily lives and makethat split-second decision and you seek for the betterchance and you bet on the decision that you think is most
likely to save you and you really cannot be saved if you
do not have good fortune as well.

We started to look toward the reopening of the schoolSo, we started from almost nothing and we groped ourway forward. What was most devastating was that theWe had no power, no PC and we needed to ask forserver was washed away. With the recent trend of IT use,

support. So we used the faculty’s smart phones and using

we had the data in the PC based on the LAN system and‘Twitter’ we asked for help and made preparations forthe new school year (Slide 25). We showed clearly what

was already in the server, but it was washed away. Hard

we needed, we expressed very clearly our appreciation

disks for the backup were inundated by water and weand we had a forward looking request in order to prevent

could not recover them. In an effort to determine where
to begin with this situation, we used a mind map™.
We filled in what we needed to do and we branchedout the specific measures to take, so we visualized
what to do and we confirmed the direction with thefaculty and started the specific concrete preparation
work toward resumption of class (Slide 24). It is not
something that I could work it out all by myself, so we
all added our thoughts on this mind map™, and this wasa very effective way to share ideas in a situation wherenothing was left behind. And concerning the important
documents and plans which were soaked in water but
recovered, we have been digitizing them to prevent moldand bacteria from growing.

Harnessing the educational potential of the home and community, Yamamoto Town aims to foster children with

The town sets the following points as priority educational goals and makes efforts to achieve them:
The points made in the Basic Educational Policy of Yamamoto Town for Fiscal Year 2011 are mostly drawn fromthe experiences of Nakahama Elementary School and Yamashita Dai-ni Elementary School during the Great East
Japan Earthquake on March 11, and schools are expected to live up to this policy with the goal of reconstruction inmind.
In particular, the town resumes classes by setting up Nakahama Elementary School in Sakamoto Elementary
School, and Yamashita Dai-ni Elementary School in Yamashita Elementary School, given that restoration to theoriginal state of these two schools is highly unlikely at the moment.
Furthermore, every school is designated as an evacuation center, and schools must respect the lives of evacuees,
while ensuring educational opportunities. Facing such issues and looking at this opportunity as a turning pointin education, schools shall develop educational activities in collaboration with other relevant parties so that our

In addition, schools are expected to improve lifelong learning opportunities for the residents of Yamamoto andpromote the traditional culture of the area.

mismatch or oversupply or waste of good intentions fromsupporters. We did not know what would arrive when
but were able to prepare and most of the homes had lost
all household possessions and school supplies. So, we
worked with the Board of Education to prepare various
school materials for the children.
In co-locating Nakahama Elementary and Sakamoto
Elemen tary scho o ls, the Bo ard of Ed ucatio n’s
Superintendent, Mr. Mori, gave us a moving basic
education policy; The point of origin for the education in
town stems from the Nakahama and Yamashita Dai-Ni
and so the schools would resume classes by co-locatingwith another school in town, instead of renting a spaceof another school (Slide 26). He gave us a consideration
so that we would not have to feel uncomfortable
renting space at another school, and we felt even moreencouraged to resume our classes. With the Sakamoto
Elementary School, the relationship has been that of mainand branch schools and at the children’s grandparents
age, there were those who had studied together and sothey were happy to accept us for the co-location andso at the Sakamoto Elementary School there were alsoclassrooms that could not be used so we decided to
conduct joint classes where the homeroom teachers fromboth schools collaborated to provide instruction.
So, the pros and cons are in the list (please see thesupplemental handout) on page110. We have received
instructions about how to proceed and there wereconsideration made about personnel allocations(Slide 28). There were differences in positions andenvironments and education plans between the twoschools and so there had to be adjustments to be madein all areas (Slide 29). So, we had a Joint Operational
Committee to share our common issues and also we had a
lot of co-ordination between the curriculum coordinators,
Vice Principals, homeroom teachers and administration
faculty. Also, we encouraged the people to make bestuse of the systems in place to help with the economic
disparity because we needed to give consideration to thefact that children with different financial backgrounds
were learning in one classroom. Declining number ofchildren lead to reduction in the number of faculty, and it
we have just started on the path towards recovery and weneed continuous consideration for the faculty allocationnext year and onwards.
We were able to give the children a sense of security interms of having homeroom teachers who knew them well(Slide 29). And we had an experienced nurse teacher stayon as emergency support after her retirement for fourmonths. So, the children could feel relieved and cry on
her laps. We also had parents and grandparents coming

something that we can do just in our schools, we needfor consultation. We received continuous support fromto improve the environment in which they live and so I

school counselors from other prefectures as well. Due

decided that we need to take the initiative to vitalize theto the rotation system of the counseling members, it wascommunity for the sake of the children.

not possible for us to keep providing counseling by thesame counselor over a long term, but by taking over

So, I decided that we will use school festivals as a trigger

from a previous counselor and by ingenious counselingfor community regeneration and I tried to engage themethods, both children and faculty members were ablecommunity in preparation for the sports festival. At

to receive counseling. We especially need to continue

Nakahama Elementary School, I decided that we will

providing counseling to those who lost their parents orrevive the children’s Kagura; it is a traditional song andwho seems determined to persevere.

dance of the community. Kagura

maybe we could

not continue, we thought, because the costumes were
Now, ‘Kobetsu no kea’ (in Japanese the word Kobetsu

washed away and the instructor had been killed by thecan contain two different meanings; individual andTsunami. However, we visited the old people living

household). This is a term I created

we cannot justin temporary housing to ask for help in making new

focus on the children but we also have to look at the

costumes for us. They were very happy to cooperate andfamily because I watched the children coming back afteralso people in the preservation club came to instruct thethe weekend and I could see the fatigue in their faces. So,

dancing. The elderly people who made the costumes

I felt that cheering up the parents and grandparents will

also came to see the practice, and so children were thenlead to stability of mental situation of the children. So,very much encouraged and the elderly people were very

we need to understand the living environment and try tomuch looking forward to seeing grandchildren dance theprovide consultation and deal individually. And, it is not

Kagura at the sports festival on Field Day (Slide 30). So,

the school being involved in the community regeneration
helped to foster healthy growth of the children.

In conclusion, I believe that the bold parts are especially
important (Slide 31). Initial response is important inevacuation after a Tsunami. You have to make theevacuation simple and in terms of the location and timingof handover to the parents, you have to let the parents
know well in advance before this kind of thing occurs.
In terms of the process toward rebuilding, we must notconfuse the children to suit our needs. In some cases,
school should make efforts to revive the community.
Going forward, in terms of the education activities wecannot fully normalize things. In schools, we usuallyfollow precedents but there are no precedents for oursituation. So, we have to be ingenious and we have todeal with new situations every day. On July 31st, wewere able to finally give the certificates of graduation(Slide 32). Thank you very much for your attention.

I would like to look back on the past 8 months in termsof what we did as a school that accepted evacuees, andI would like to share with you how we operated school

Sabara Elementary School is located 9 kilometers to theadministration and the things that we considered. To

West from the Fukushima station, and in 1995 there wasgive you a conclusion first, what is important is earlya national sports meet held at the Azuma Athletic Park.

response, creating relationship built on trust, and withWe are also close to Arakawa

an organized system. We also need to put emphasis on

tasting water that has been chosen as Water of the Heisei

giving explanation in advance, standing by students toera. We are surrounded by the blessed nature and we are aacknowledge their feelings, and acting as usual to ensuresmall school celebrating our 136th Anniversary (Slide 2).

that children and guardians and parents feel safe.

In the gymnasium 2,300 people used to live as evacuees

the good delicious

and also the Marathon meet is conducted each year

no third-grade students, so we were planning to havethat starts from this athletics Azuma. This is the Azuma
Athletic Park, which is the starting and finishing point.

grades, one class covering the fourth grade, and anotherIn this area there are about 200 households. Sometimes
they invite us to pick up cherries and they also teach usof pupils quadrupled as a result of accepting evacuees

how to make Chimaki, traditional food that is wrapped

and the number of classrooms has now increased to 6. We

by bamboo leaves, and how to grow the rice. We have

had to make major changes in our educational practicesuch close interaction with the people in the community.

and we committed ourselves to preparing for accepting

Also, we take advantage of a small school; upper grade

evacuees in addition to our annual work associated withstudents read books to other students during breaks, forexample (Slide 3).

We had only 28 pupils enrolled in our school, but in theevening of 28th of March, we were asked to receive theevacuees and 6th of April, we accepted 75 pupils (later
accepted one more pupil) from the outside of the school
district. As a result we accepted 76. This year, we hadthe end/start of the school year. As you can see on thechart, many students and pupils came from MinamiSoma City and they are covering 18 elementary schools
increased from 8 to 12 (Slide 4).

We had to handle various matters not only physically but
also psychologically, including personal matters (Slide 5).

umbrella stands. Textbooks and all those supplementary
course books had to be prepared as well. From theFirst, we had to prepare things physically (Slide 6). From

Education Board of the city, we were able to obtainthe time of establishment of the building, there were only

electronically the names of the evacuees, so we were able
to grasp the number of pupils by class, by gender, and

the Art classroom to an ordinary one. We also had tothat helped us start preparation for getting textbooks andmake sure that there were enough tables and chairs, soother related supplies as well as making the registry of

we had to calculate how many extra chairs and desks

pupils. Above all, we prioritized the preparation that we

we would need, and we asked the nearby school to lend

would need on the day we received evacuees; I approvedordering name stamps and notebooks, which of course

also had to accept evacuees, so we could not borrow

would need to be budgeted while we really did not know

them. It was Sunday, but we made contacts to ask forwhere that would come from, but I approved the orders

co-operation and looked for schools for help. Then, weto be placed so that we could give classes without any
troubles. A little later we were able to get the financial

into our school on the following day. We also preparedresources from the fund from the city. At the same time,

the shelves for slippers and classroom signage as well as

there were people, organizations, and companies sellingeducational materials that kindly offered us the kits ofJapanese calligraphy and painting supplies, instruments
like recorders and other study-related supplies. We
never knew when or how many supplies we were goingto receive, and there were occasions when we hadoverlapping supplies and extra supplies, so we sometimes
sent such supplies to the schools that were in need ofmore support through the vendors coming to school on aregular basis.
Second is about preparing the education environment
in terms of staff allocation (Slide 7). Now that we had
three more classes, we needed more teachers. We were
hoping to get some from the Hamadori district but it wasdifficult. One day before the semester, we were finallyable to receive instructors somehow. The personnel
an administrative staff member, who were both originallyscheduled to be transferred, were able to keep working
with us. So, for one semester we were able to have two
administrative staff for that semester, I think that helped
us greatly. On the morning of April 6th, we were busy
accepting evacuees and that was also the day we started

They covered the duties of assistant homeroom teachers

the semester and we had the ceremony to accept the newand course teachers, as well as providing care for the

students but there were PTA members and a teacher from

evacuating children and their parents. As we became

the Hamadori district who volunteered to help us. Also,busier with increased administrative work associatedwith accepting new children, we also appointed thoseordered to play a dual role. On the 1st of May, we had

dual-role teachers as chief members to take care of

two, and on the 23rd we had three joining the faculty,

school registry and providing textbooks and library

and we had one extra staff member for special support

study. In addition, the Vice Principal normally has toeducation from Fukushima City. In the end we were able

teach several hours but we did not assign any work –to have 18 teachers and instructors, which is twice as

any classroom work to him. Because he had to do othermany as the original number of teachers and instructors.

office work like adjusting the time table for school
bus, contacting evacuating children and the parents,

So, in order to facilitate smooth administration, we

schools and evacuation centres, we made this decision,

reviewed administrative organization and we also cameand because we have this combined classes, we had toup with ideas so that we could attend to matters in achange part of the annual curriculum but we looked at

systematic manner (Slide 8). First, the three original

what other schools were doing and we were able to maketeachers – they were appointed as the Block Supervisors

the necessary revision.

for the low graders, middle graders and high graders andnewly appointed instructors would take up their duties
quickly. Second, it was about the dual-role teaching staff.

Thirdly, was to psychologically attend to the needs ofthe evacuees (Slide 9). On the 31st of March, in two
temporary evacuation centres, we held an explanatory
meeting with the parents of the students from the outsideof the school district. The Principal, Vice Principal
attended the meeting; we introduced our school andto the parents and guardians.

explained how we were accepting evacuees to theevacuating children and their parents. We created the

The explanatory meetings worked well and we weregroups so that the pupils could come to school in groups.

able to gain better understanding and full support fromWe also asked some parents to become the PTA members

the parents and guardians. On the day that we welcomed

and we asked them to cooperate with us in checking theevacuee children at our school, they actually attended

health and home situation of the pupils. And, in the night

the groups of pupils coming to school, provided helpof the following day, we held an explanatory meeting

to pupils, picked up the color of their school bags andwith the parents of the original Sabara Elementary

the right sizes of their slippers

everything went very

school pupils upon request. Attendance was 120%. We
explained what would be the benefits and the negative

day we received the evacuee children. In receiving those

aspects of accepting evacuees as well as the number of

evacuees, not just the evacuees themselves but for thepupils we would receive. We tried to provide as muchoriginal pupils of the school, we had to make sure that

information as possible and conveyed our views as

the school would be a place where they could all feelschool administrators. One parent said that when the timevery comfortable. So, we paid attention to the following
four things (Slide10).

original pupils might feel lonely. So, I pointed out that ifthat was the case, because of this encounter and farewell,First, evacuees had to familiarize themselves with Sabara

and because of this various kinds of experiences, ourElementary School. Everyone was made to understandpupils would benefit greatly from this opportunity inthey were all children of Sabara; we tried to create aterms of their emotional development. That is the kind ofplace where they could meet one another, where they

the value that I try to communicate

could share understanding (Slide 11). We asked one pupil

evacuee to make some remarks at the opening ceremonyof the semester because for both groups of pupils thiswould mean a change in environment but we wanted
them to feel that they could overcome this challenge
and we asked our 6th grader to handle this matter in afavorable way in a meeting that was held in advance. On
the second day in the classroom

the homeroom class,

we gave them instructions about the rules of the school
and an assurance message that all the faculty members
were actually there to help them to enjoy themselves atschool. Another thing is that in principle we did not want
to change the style of Sabara. It is a very small school
and in the morning they would come to the Principals
and they would do the same before going home. Also,
the older and younger pupils work in the same group. For
together. We did not make changes to those original rules
just because we accepted evacuees. We also wanted to
pay attention to the original Sabara Elementary pupils.
Next, we wanted to regain the orderly rhythm that would
actually lead to a feeling of safety and security justas in the past (Slide 12). On the third day, we started
giving school meals. On the 15th of May, we did holdSports Festival Day as scheduled, although we had tochange part of the program. Due to the concerns over theradiation effects on health, the festival was held in thechildren to bring their lunchbox, we had the sports day
only in the morning on a smaller scale. In the afternoon,
we had a school luncheon where the PTA and committee
members came and cooked for the children. So, we had aschool event, and throught this event we were able to feelsolidarity. I think that such a sense of solidarity helped
children to feel secure and safe, which would lead tobetter warm relationships in the future.
As for mental care for the children, we shared thisunderstanding through the meetings such as student
guidance councils (Slide 13); the faculty members weretasked to help and support the children by staying close,
praising and listening to them with a sympathetic ear.
Also, we did not force them to talk about the disaster

From this experience we learnt so much. It was a goodor the evacuation. We wanted to prevent the secondary

opportunity for children to learn the importance ofdamages and we wanted to make sure that our placeliving with courage and hope, as well as mutual support,

would be a safe place.
situations. We tried to take it as positively as possible.
Concerning the care for the instructors or the teachers,

To original Sabara pupils, I said this, ‘You are very

basically it was the same as the talking to the evacuees.

kind accepting those evacuees; you enjoyed the new

We asked them what the original school was like andcompanies, well done!’ To the evacuees I said this, ‘You

we also made an opportunity available for them sohave overcome the anxiety, the uncomfortable feelings

that they could talk to the management officers of theat the new place, new school. Well done, you did a great

Hamadori district and we shared the sense of mission

job!’ That was my message at the end of the semester.

and achievement. School counselors, what we call heart

I believe it is our role to acknowledge their efforts andsupport counselors, and other related organizations had

place values to their experiences.

very close collaboration with us from a very early stage(Slide 14). From various aspects we wanted to sort ofobserve how children were behaving and acting andwe wanted to act accordingly. Their parents needed tofeel that they were also supported and when parents felt
this way, we thought that their children would also feel
supported.

How we handled all those donated materials and the
supplies (Slide 15). Regarding various support activities,
we thought that if the children could have fun and getsome excitement, they would be able to dispel theanxiety, so we accepted offers of help so long as those
activities did not interfere with our educational activities,
do not break their daily rhythm, and they are educational.
Let me give you some examples. For instance, university/
college students helped our pupils to study, and theparents and children greatly appreciated that. We asked
for a room or a corner to study in the evacuation centre atschool, The teachers occasionally visited the corner, thestudy corner. As for those supplies that were given anddonated to us, sometimes we received them intermittently
without any notice. We needed extra people to sort andprepare them for distribution, and thanks to PTA we wereable to do that.

So, from these three aspects we tried to treat the evacuees
and our original pupils (Slide 18) and while they aremaking a lot of efforts at our school, whose motto is tonurture children’s “zest for living” in this world of rapidchanges, we teachers have to show our vitality. We want
to be a good role model; we want to make the appropriate
judgment. Together with our pupils, we would like toagain be courageous just as our children are. Thank youvery much for your kind attention.

Miyako City is located in the eastern tip of the mainor parents came to schools to pick their children up

island Honshu. Now, I am going to talk about the impact

and at that time. ‘Keeping children at school for safetyof this great earthquake on the Miyako City.

concerns’. Option number 1 says that it is better andrecommended that they wait at the school and the schoolstaff tried to convince the parents. In addition, there

Regarding my speech, I would like to speak in thewas a student who was absent from school because oforder of the resume. On Friday, March 11th at 14:46,

the family’s Buddhist memorial service, and the student

a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred off the coast ofcame to school later following the family’s advice for

Tohoku. Each of Miyako City’s, public, elementary andsafety. But there were three children who were picked up

junior high school conducted an evacuation procedureby the guardians. Actually, we later found that those threeor system according to the emergency manual forchildren were killed or went missing. Other students whoeach school. On March 3rd 1933, a great earthquake

stayed at the school were safe.

hit this region so on 3rd of March every year we haveevacuation drills and therefore on March 11th when thegreat earthquake occurred, we were able to follow the

And number two. The strong Tsunami came and hit. In

procedures for evacuation. The first place we usually

our city, it was estimated that the height of the Tsunami

chose as an evacuation site was the school play yard. But

was over 8.5 meters at 3:26 p.m. accordingly to the Japanbecause the jolt was stronger than usual earthquake we

Meteorological Agency. About 30% of the students or

felt, there were some schools which sent us their children

pupils had their homes were totally or partially damaged.

to the higher ground than the usual evacuation site.

Therefore, there were no homes for them to return to, so

Because the earthquake was so strong that the guardians

we accepted those students and on that particular nightthey stayed at the school. But as we have already heard

consolidated into a new school but now they are usingfrom the previous speakers, there was a problem of foodthe facility of another school. Taro Dai-ichi Junior Highand the coldness. There was only one school with the

School was sharing with Taro Dai-ichi Elementary

block heaters, or heater storage. So the school decided to

School as of September 20th.

accommodate all the 62 students. We knew block heaters
could last for 2.5 days, so they were so helpful and usefulat the time of Tsunami.

and one junior high school with temporary houses on theschool grounds and there are various needs for mental

In Miyako City, there are a couple of schools which arecare for children and for their parents. In each school,currently being built and I heard that they are planning tothey are presently making strenuous efforts in order toinstall this type of a block heater.

maintain standards of academic achievement, and review
current disaster preparedness education, and promote
education for recovery from the quake.

And number three: cases where schools served as
evacuation centres. About 65% of the children were
living in the coastal areas in Miyako City. There were

Number five is about how to overcome challenges andin total 21 schools facing the ocean, out of which 10

examples of education for recovery by each school; there

elementary schools and 4 junior high schools, in total

are examples of 11 schools. Let me go through briefly.

14 schools were used as evacuation centres. If a schoolFirstly, Miyako Elementary School. With the motto

is used as an evacuation centre, faculty members and‘Nurturing children to grow strong’, they aim to haveschool personnel have to take care of evacuees. Well, inthe children develop strong bodies through a ‘school-

the beginning, the school personnel helped the evacuees

wide playtime.’ Children need agility, fair judgment, andmostly, but afterwards the municipal staffers as well as

communication skills, and children’s facial complexion

other volunteer groups for disaster-prevention came toand expression can change in positive manner throughhelp. Moreover, the members on the Board of Education
as well as other members from the General Education

11th, they decided to promote education for protecting

Center in the Prefecture came to help subsequently.

lives based on the annual teaching plan. The ‘schoolwide playtime’ takes place during lunch break. Students

In April, classes were resumed. Most schools wereare divided into sixteen groups with a sixth grader as atargeting April 25 for reopening, and school staff at less-leader of each group. Children make a plan and decideaffected schools in Miyako City came to support thewhat game to play, e.g. dodgeball, jumping rope or tag

more-affected schools in the coastal areas. So they wereplay. The aim is to facilitate communication among

able to prepare for the entrance ceremony and otherstudents of different grades and improve their physicalthings in April.

abilities. If you are unable to control your own body, you
cannot control your mind. This is the principle behind
this activity.

Number four. Now, on challenging issues for the schools;
some elementary schools are currently co-located withWe also have a program called “Iwate Support Program

other schools. For example, Omoe Elementary School

for Children’s Mental Health.” This was initiated by theshares its facilities with Uiso and Chikei Elementary

Board of Education of Iwate Prefecture, which dispatches

School. These schools were originally scheduled to beclinical psychotherapists to Miyako City to collaborate incounseling children with local staff at support centers for

Next is Tsugaruishi Elementary School and Tsugaruishi

supporting of children’s development. It is also important

Junior High School; both these schools have stableto provide education for parents, so walking rally iscommunity associations. Therefore, the management andconducted for families in a hazard area of a school

administration of the evacuation sites were conducted by

district.

the association staff, which helped the schools greatly.
In the first trimester, many people extended support,

Sister school activities of the Iwate Prefectural

therefore the children were able to spend stable school

Association of Elementary and Junior High Schooldays. They are determined to send out their gratitude in

Principals. This will be explained later.

the second trimester.

Next is the case example of Kuwagasaki Elementary

Sakiyama Junior High School; this is the example of

School. This school is located closest to the ocean, so

implementation of local community support projects.

it was endangered. However, there was only a minor

They visit homes and do activities to improve theenvironment in the local community. And one local

hopes this school would become a place where children

person, an adult, said, ‘Since March 11, everyone, fromcan learn disaster recovery process, so they are preparing

children to grown-ups, has been struggling amid shock

various measures. Recently, sixth graders made aand fear just to regain his or her daily life. I am relieved

presentation with an excellent group reading on theand encouraged to hear that you are carrying out suchrecovery efforts of the people in the city. By using theactivities. Not only your voluntary work itself but also

framework of MEXT’s Arts and Culture program, they

just knowing about and seeing your activities encourage

made a great presentation. There was a big applaud given

us. Thank you.’by the audience to the sixth graders.
Next, number seven in parenthesis. At Dai-ichi Junior
I would like move on to Sokei Elementary School.

High School, the Iwate Prefectural Associations ofThis school is focusing on the rethinking of education

Elementary and Junior High School Principals areactivities from the viewpoints of mental health education

conducting sister school activities. What does this mean?

and recovery education. The aim here is to continuously

Targeting the 25th of April, Miyako City schools wereand consciously raise awareness of feelings such as

aiming to hold the entrance ceremonies. However, there

cooperativeness, thankfulness and kindness.

were no stationery goods available; no pencils, erasers
or sacks as well as training shoes. So the principals

Akamae Elementary School and Sakiyama Elementary

requested help from the less-affected inland area schools,

School. These schools, with temporary housings on theirto which they generously responded, and interaction

school grounds, are now trying to accept the current

between schools was further extended to club activities

situation in order to have a broader look at education.

exercise or sports activities and cultural club activities.

The Principal and other teachers are working hard

The schools on the coastal area were all affected by

to go forward with educational activities. Even on

Tsunami and could not to use their own school ground.

weekends they open the school yard and hold sports

Therefore, the inland schools invited the children fromday events. They are also organizing festivals together

the affected schools to play on their ground.

with guardians, parents and the PTA. Very cheerful andenergetic activities are conducted to cheer up the children

Number eight: the case of Dai-ni Junior High School.

at the school.

This school reviewed the family survey reports. They
also reviewed emergency evacuation sites as well as theway to contact parents or guardians. Although we knew
the addresses of the parents or households, the houses
were flooded and washed away by the Tsunami. So we

Learning of Tsunami using a picture-card show by Ms.

were unable to identify the whereabouts of those parents

Yoshi Tabata.

and children. Therefore, they improved the family survey
reports in order to find out how to contact them in the

As a survivor of the 1933 Showa Sanriku-oki Tsunami,

event of a disaster.

Ms. Tabata experienced the disaster at the age of eight.
Based upon her experience, she developed a picture-card

Next example is Kanan Junior High School. This school

show and the picture card was utilized by each school.

reviews how to manage basic student data to prepare for

Iwate University Professor Tomoko Yamazaki translated

disaster and how to utilize Tsunami Shelter.

it into English after the Sumatra earthquake and Tsunami.
I believe that an activity like this can help create an

Now, I have explained the activities and initiatives byinternational culture of Tsunami preparedness.

each school and you have the names of the Principals ofeach school on my resume. If you would like to know

Now, I would like to talk about recommendations formore in details, you can contact the principal. I think that

educational tools for Tsunami preparedness. In 2006, inthey will provide further information.

the local newspaper it was reported that in 1955 or so,
Karuta (Japanese traditional card game) for Tsunami
Preparedness was developed by Miyako Weather Stationand Morioka Meteorological Observatory, but it was not

Next, number six. I would like to talk about what Miyako

completed. I told the story to Kuwagasaki ElementaryCity’s Board of Education has conducted for Tsunami

School which is located closest to the coast and Taropreparedness education. One is to provide cooperation

Dai-ichi Elementary School. You can find an example

in making DVD kits and to utilize them. According toof Karuta created by Kuwagasaki Elementary School

an article published on June 23rd 2005 in Iwate Nippo,

that consists of 45 cards on Appendix A. As you can see,the local daily newspaper, an expert research committee

one of the indices is “

under the Japanese government’s Central Disasterfrom “Taiken kataru, Tabata Yoshi-san no kamishibai”

Prevention Council, conducted a survey study in which(meaning that Ms. Yoshi Tabata’s picture-card show tells

it analyzed eight types of magnitude eight earthquakes

her own experience). She is indeed playing an activethat might occur in the future with epicenters in therole, but when it comes to using them in other regions, I(Ta) ,” which is an initial letter

think it would be better to consider redeveloping Karuta
indicated that Miyako and other cities in Iwate Prefecture
might have a Tsunami of 22 meters or higher, and I
asked myself what I should do as a public administrator.

And the next is about establishment of Tsunami Shelters.

Iwate Prefectural Government had requested Professor

I would like to use the Off-Sanriku-oki earthquake in

Shigeki Sakai of Iwate University to compile educational

November 2005 to tell a story of Tsunami Shelters.

materials, and I had participated in the INS (abbreviation

There was an advisory for tsunamis with a height of 50

for Iwate Network System), the tsunami preparedness

centimeters or less. The 50 centimeters or less risk means

education research group. So Miyako City joined and wethat they only issue an advisory, not warning of Tsunami.

established the Investigative Committee for Development

Actually for our city, whenever the Tsunami advisoryof the Educational Tools for Tsunami Preparedness and a

was issued, people paid attention but nobody ran to theworking group to develop a DVD. We had some school

evacuation centre. Then the newspaper carried images ofchildren who were walking on the embankment or dike.
People criticized us and the Board of Education.
So we came up with this idea of Tsunami Shelter. Whenthe children are at school we can surely have themevacuate but when they are at home or on their way
from or to the school or on weekends, they are to act byfollowing the instruction on signboards. Particularly,
for lower graders, even if you tell them to run to theevacuation centres, these centres, designated by the
Municipal government, are very risky or dangerous forsmall children to go to because they are usually locatedon higher ground. So, there was a safety guidebook
issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology, and paying attention to suchparticular needs of the small children, we came up withthis idea of a Tsunami shelter.
Sorry for speaking so fast, I would like to conclude
my presentation but for people from all over Japan aswell as from abroad -- we received many messages forencouraging people or students at many schools in Iwate
Prefecture and they are encouraged and children are
studying hard. Thank you very much for your supportand encouragement.

Tsunami Shelter(

School)First of all, we received very warm support and words ofnever be able to forget. At 2:46 p.m. the Great Eastencouragement from around Japan and from around theJapan Earthquake occurred and at that time, I was inworld. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of them

my office, the Principal's office at the Namie Highfor their kindness.

school. March 11 was during the period for the second
entrance examination for high schools, so there were

If you look at November and March calendars, theyno students in the school when the unprecedented 9.0

have the same days of the week. So I still remember

magnitude great earthquake (6 upper on the seismic,

Friday March 11, 2011 very well. It is a day I will

Japanese seismic scale) struck. This was followed by agreat Tsunami and the nuclear power plant accident, andI am going to explain how the school responded to thatsituation.
Fukushima is made of Hamadori, Nakadori and Aizu
regions, which are three regions with different climaticconditions. And the Soso District is located closest to the2). To the South is Iwaki city, and of 160 kilometers ofcoastline, Soso district accounts for about 100 kilometers.
Now, Soso District is made up of Soma District andFutaba District. Soma District consists of Soma, MinamiSoma, Shinchi-machi and Iitate towns and village, andFutaba district is made up of Hirono, Naraha, Tomioka,
Kawauchi, Okuma, Futaba, Namie and Katsurao towns
and villages (Slide 3). So, across Naraha and Tomioka,
there stands the Fukushima Dai-ni nuclear power plant,
and on the border of Okuma and Futaba, there is the
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. So in Namie,
where I was working, there are no nuclear power plants
in that particular town.
Please take a look at the map of Hamadori on Slide 4. As
you can see, Namie High school is located along the JR
Joban railway. On the East side is Ukedo. That district
was totally destroyed by the Tsunami.
At the Namie High School, we have the Tsushima branchschool. It is a short linear distance but it is about 27
kilometers by road; about a 40 minute drive between
the main Namie High School and the Tsushima branchschool. I will explain how we evacuated and how westarted or restarted classes through the satellite school
system.
This is the location of Namie High School (Slide 5).
Now, the people of Namie Town are trying to return to
the town, and they are making Namie Yakisoba (fried
noodles), which is becoming popular among the public
as a B class gourmet in various areas. So We had avery warm support from the town and we had a tightconnection between the school and the town. So, it canbe said that the school existed based on support fromthe town. This is the entrance, main gate of the schooland the student entrance (Slide 6). The earthquake did
not damage the building but water supply was damaged
because of the ground motion.
This is the Tsushima school, about 30 kilometers away
(Slide 7). The picture to the left is the front entrance,
to the right is the full view of the school building andgymnasium (Slide 8). We had only one class per grade,i.e. three classes in total. At the peak we had about 1,200
evacuees here.
This is a picture of the main Namie High School; it
was taken after we returned in late May when we wereallowed access on a temporary basis (Slide 9). This is theat that time (Slide 11). This is the front part of the Art
room and inside the classroom, chairs had been toppled(Slide 12), and after the entrance exam we were goingto have an orientation session. So we were in the middleof the preparation and some of the things like signs werelater found (Slide 13).

one at the entrance and three in the gym. We were helpedby those jet heaters because it got quite cold during thenight (Slide 20). So, this was the early stage and after
this we had even more evacuees being sheltered here.
Newspapers were delivered in the morning, as seen in the
picture on Slide 21, but it ceased from the third day after
the Earthquake because newspaper delivery shops had
evacuated in danger.
(Slide 22) School faculty worked day and nightproviding assistance, but not everyone. As for those
who had families, we had them attend to their families
first, but the young faculty members and those in the
managerial positions stayed at the Tsushima School andengaged in various activities day and night. First things
we did were to compile the list of names of evacuees. We
asked people to fill in the list and also check out when
they were moving to another centre. The entire list was
displayed at the entrance of the gym and many peoplecame to see if their families or relatives were there. This
list was very helpful.

we were able to act based on the priority given to humanlife.
This is the Tsushima School, which became an evacuation
centre (Slide 14) and here people were waiting for food

The most difficult thing was that the lifelines were
disrupted. We had electric power but water supply was(Slide 15). Tsushima is located between the Abukuma

cut off, we had no water. That means we could not use

mountains, so there was still snow remaining from thewinter and it was quite cold (Slide 16). And people lined
up to receive food (Slide 17). It was very orderly; people

Fourth, accurate information was desperately needed.

lined up in queues and received food. We had only

Whether it was good news or bad news, we would haveappreciated it much earlier in order to execute a muchbetter action.

hard and I think evacuees felt some sense of security

And the information from the SPEEDI (System
for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dosein the Tsushima School and the evacuees (Slide 18), so

Information) was not provided, that was a grave issue. In

this is how they evacuated and you can see the fatigue on

Namie town we do not have a nuclear power plant within

their faces but they were resting in this room (Slide 19).

the town and so information from the nuclear power

This is the gymnasium; we had four jet heaters in all withplant was not provided to us. That was a serious problem.

Let me explain how we dealt with the situation

On the 12th, 14th and 15th there were hydrogen

immediately after the occurrence of the earthquake

explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant(Slide 23). Our main school is within ten kilometerand that led to Tsushima District being recognized as

radius, so we were in the evacuation order area, later thisrisky and we decided to evacuate again. So, the residents

turned into a no-entry zone, and the Tsushima School is

had evacuated toward the Nihonmatsu District by thealso within 30 kilometers. So, initially it was in-house

early evening. The Vice Principal and I, as well as Headevacuation but then later it was organized to the plannedof the branch school, and Head of the administrative

evacuation zone.
the last to leave.
On March 11, there were no students in school because
we were having a high school entrance exam period at

Next I would like to talk about our efforts from the 16ththat time. There were many aftershocks and we could not
sleep during the night. We felt intuitively that this wasstudents and prepared for resumption of classes. On 16th,

a serious thing. What worried me much was that there

we went to the nearby education office (affiliated with
the Board of Education in Fukushima Prefecture) andI still wonder what it was. There was also a sound ofcrows crying. So, it seemed that the animals were feelingand information. Based on this, the managers discussed
how we would respond going forward. We learned for thealso houses had collapsed. So, it was an anxious night
without power.

great deal of confusion. In the Nakadori region we had asnow storm. In Aizu District, we had severe snow storm

The next day on the 12th, the outdoor town PA system

and at that time we had difficulty obtaining gasoline,

and the information cars announced that everyone

which inhibited smooth movement. As of the evening ofwithin the 10 kilometer radius of a nuclear power plantthe 16th, we had four faculty members at the main school

had to evacuate to the Tsushima District, which is 20
kilometers away or more than 20 kilometers away

were safe at the Tsushima School. As for students wefollowing the Prime Minister’s direction. So, after 6 a.m.

had difficulty checking their safety because they all

we were headed for Tsushima to evacuate. The Town

evacuated at once. So, we continuously made efforts to

had requested that the school be made available as antake tally of the students.

evacuation centre and we accepted it.
On the 17th, we were planning to have the third selection
Route 114 goes from Namie to Fukushima, and there istest for the entrance at Tsushima School but it wasa valley and that is the place where we had the highest
radiation dose. So, you had to go through Tsushima,schools where evacuation orders were issued.

Yamakiya and another valley to get to Iitate. This region
still has the highest radiation dose even now.

On the 18th, the last faculty member was found to besafe and so all the faculty members in both the main andSo, about 1,200 people came to the school as evacuees.
It was still winter and it was quite cold. I think it was astudents, the homeroom teachers worked really hard totough situation for all but there was enough diesel oil

try to confirm their safety. At the main school, we had

stored there so we made it available.

one in the second grade. At the Tsushima school, we had

the original schools. Five satellite schools were to be

two students in the second grade who were unaccounted

opened in the prefecture so that the students could restartfor. Finally, we had a second grade student we could

their learning as quickly as possible.

not account for. The student was by the sea and went
missing. The student was later confirmed dead, which

In the case of Namie High School, we established a

was very regrettable.

satellite schools at Adachi High School in Nihonmatsu
City and Yoshima High School in Iwate City. Tsushimabranch School established its satellite in Adachi High

Iwase Agricultural High School in the Nakadori region

School, but we rented the culture centre in Nihonmatsu

and we started activities towards resumption of classes.
Here again, we had the full support from that school andwere not enough facilities at Adachi High School.

every day we had a meeting with the managers of the
Iwase Agricultural School for information exchange,

So, by the 30th of April, we had a plan in place to restart

where we received various advice. The host school trains

operations. On the 9th of May, we actually started

students to be self-employed and it had a dormitory, andclasses, and on the 10th we conducted an orientation

they provided accommodation as well. We were able tofor the new students. At this point, we handed over thestay there and use the accommodation. That was very

admission document to those who passed the entrance

helpful. Iwase Agricultural High School was also serving

exams. We wanted to have the entrance ceremony at theas an evacuation centre, so they were hosting many
evacuees at the same time.

not do so and had to do it in the satellite schools. I felt
sorry for them. We also received support from various

Later in the month, there was a meeting in Fukushima
City to open satellite schools. So the school operation
using the satellite system was introduced. The essence of

As of the 9th of May, the number of students from thethe satellite system is that in order to pass on the tradition

main school learning at the two satellite schools was 130,of the schools in the Soso District we would establish

and 50 from Tsushima School learning at Adachi Satellite

satellite schools in various different schools so that the

School (Slide 24). As of April 8th, we had 279 students

students would be able to remain with the original schoolat the main school; half had already been transferredand continue their study and receive their diplomas fromto other schools within or outside the prefecture andwere not mindful enough of the fact that we were locatednext to nuclear power plants. We knew it was there but
we had blindly believed that nuclear power plants wereabsolutely safe. We had to assume that accidents could
happen and we needed to have conducted the disasterprevention education based on that assumption. That iswhat we need to do going forward.
So I think that the schools in Hamadori should havesister school agreements with schools in Nakadori or
Aizu regions to cooperate in case of emergency and if we
had decided where students would evacuate in advance,
it would have given a sense of easiness to the parents
and the children. The same can be said of sister city
arrangements between cities.
In terms of study time at the evacuation centre (Slide 26),
there were also some students taking correspondence

students were commuting from the evacuation centres,

courses, and planning to return in the second semester. At

which were surrounded by hot springs spas. The distance

Tsushima School, we had 61 but 11 moved out.
for them to secure the time to study, and there were time
In terms of the measures we took after resumption, weconstraints for the classes, so we were not able to provide

were confronted with various problems and issues so wethe full hours of learning.

worked with Adachi and Yoshima School teachers (Slide25). We discussed with them over and over how we had

In terms of job search, they are living in unfamiliar

to deal with such problems and issues and based on thatplaces far away from home, and they have to compete

we were able to offer classes. In terms of facilities, wewith students from other schools, so the career guidance

wanted to use a gym for physical education classes but

staff went to various places in Kanto region to collectit was not available, so we had to use the City facility. It

information and provide consultation. And during thewas a little far away, so we spent two hours consecutively

summer break, parent-student-teacher meetings were

for the class after measuring the dosage with theheld.

dosimeter to determine whether to use the facility. In thecase of the Tsushima branch school, the school borrowed

In terms of the school events, we were not collecting

the city’s cultural centre. The large training room wasfees to reduce parents’ financial burden, and so it was

divided into three classrooms using partitions, but it wasdifficult to hold events. But it was good to have an

not a fully satisfactory situation. In the second semester,

opportunity to go and cheer the baseball team competing

however, a temporary school building was built so I thinkin the summer tournament. They were able to meet forthat the situation has been improved.
that were separated and so it was a very good time. And
In terms of disaster prevention, the system forin November Ehime Prefecture provided support forcommunication and collaboration with nuclear power

school excursions. With their support the second year

students were able to go on these school trips, so wewant to thank Mr. Tokihiro Nakamura, the Governorof Ehime Prefecture and the people of Ehime for theirwarm support. Concerning extracurricular club activities,
they are continued on a smaller scale, but there are still
various issues to be overcome.
And here I have included two compositions by students
about their evacuation experience (Slide 26). Theseessayswritten from the students’ eyes

I wanted toread out, but I do not have time, so I will skip over them.
This is also one of the essays written in May, and I think
you can see how strong their emotions are about wanting
to return to their native town.
And in terms of support from the community, we
recognize that a school cannot exist without the supportof the community. We are still very grateful, so we need
to be a school that thrives within the community.
Finally, how can we build a school for students? That’s
what we would always like to keep in mind and act on
carefully for students according to our belief that school
should bring up human development for the students.
So, I told the students that what you have learned is the
only asset that you have with you. I am confident that
it is these students who will be the central force in thereconstruction. So, we want to educate these students sothey will grow up to be healthy in mind and body and to
become people with compassion, while learning basics
and foundation about life. Once again I want to express
my appreciation for all the warm support from aroundthe world. Thank you very much for your attention.

Born in Suginami Ward, Tokyo. Graduated from Sophia University, Boston University’s
Graduate School, and France’s Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (National
Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations) in Paris. Before taking the current positionas Senior Policy Analyst in the OECD Education and Training Policy Division, she worked for
the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation in the OECD as Associate Expert under
the dispatch program of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as UNESCO’s Education
Sector. She specializes in intercultural education, comparative education policies, evaluationof educational policies, migrant education policies, education policies for early childhoodand care, and evaluation of non-formal education outcomes. After the earthquake on March
11 , Ms . Ta g u m a c o m p i l e d
the experiences and cases ofe m e rg e n c y r e s p o n s e s t h a t
countries took for infants andchildren in a time of disaster.
Moreover, she currently serves
as Project Manager for a new
project called “OECD Tohoku
schools.” She has co-written areport on “OECD Policy Review
of Migrant Education” and“OECD Review on the Outcomeof Non-Formal Education.”

Good afternoon. I am Miho Taguma from the OECD.

suggesting recommendations; but this is not the caseAs you can see from my name, I am Japanese. Working

here. We wish to be helpful by presenting other countries’at the OECD, I have to put aside my nationality because

experiences as a mirror so that you can select what could

my task is to serve 34 member countries equally withoutwork for you. You know what works the best for you;treating Japan as a special country. However, under these

you know the local people, you know the context; we docircumstances, the situation is different. Of course Japannot. We know our limit. However, we would like to be

is a special country to me; it is my home country. Also,

helpful.

the OECD is committed to supporting Japan’s recovery
efforts. This is why the organization sent me here, and I

The second key term is ‘Creative Education’. We are notam very pleased to be here with you. So, thank you very

here to simply support you to go back to where you weremuch for the invitation.

- but we would like to support you to be creative. To doso, you would need some new ideas and thoughts, some

Before I begin, I would like to highlight threedifferent ways of looking at things. In this respect the

key elements in my presentation. The topic of mypresentation is: Food for Thought for Recovery withvarious countries' practices.

Creative Education in Tohoku: Implications from
Other Countries- Responses to natural disasters and

The third key element is not only ‘Natural Disasters’ but

general new approaches. The first key word is ‘Food

also 'General New Approaches'. In order to generate new

for Thought’. This means that I am not going toideas, we would need to extend our boundaries. Instead

present OECD 's recommendations. You may have theof focusing on the introduction of the recovery efforts

image about the OECD that it tells Japan what to do –from other countries, we wanted to introduce some ofthe general key new trends. This way, you could takeexamples, there were some successful key factors. Thereadvantage of incorporating new ideas into the current

were many, but due to the limitation of the time, I would

system. So, in my presentation, some of the country

like to focus on these three.

examples are not specific to recovery but to generalinnovative approaches.

The first success factor is "well-designed school-levelrecovery plan". From the newspapers, I see that a

Before I go into detail, I would like to put some context.

national recovery plan is being developed, maybe at the

As the slide shows, there are other countries who have

local level as well. Other country practices have shown

experienced large scale earthquakes in the world, sothat a school-level recovery plan can play a key role.

Japan is not alone. As you can see, earthquake is not
the only large-scale natural disaster. As soon as the

The second key element is "well-planned policy

earthquake hit Japan, I received so many emails fromalignment". In some cases, the national recovery plan ormember countries like Chile, Italy and New Zealand hit

the national policy may be looking at this way, while atby an earthquake; Australia experiencing the disasterthe local level the recovery plan may be going anotherfrom the flood; and the United States where California

way and, furthermore, the school level recovery may be

was hit by an earthquake and New Orleans, the Hurricane

moving towards another different way. Other country

Katrina; they all wanted to help Japan. Te OECD waspractices show that the starting point for education

like a knowledge broker. Again, this is just to show you

recovery should be at the school level; school-level needs

how the world is ready to support Japan.

should be at the heart of the recovery plan and otherpolicies should support the plan and be aligned so that

Now, I would like to focus on my presentation on

everyone could work together in the same direction to

three key success factors. Looking at various country

create critical mass under the same vision.

The third key success factor is "innovation in public
service delivery". Recovery should entail opportunities.
Of course, many other countries have experienced
hardship, but they turned the hardship into opportunities
and they took the moment to change their public service
delivery by re-thinking existing systems and creating
new ways of doing business.
Lastly, very briefly, at the end of my presentation, I
would like to give a few words about the OECD’s new
I have one request for you to interpret my presentation.

plan". What are the common lessons learnt? The firstand foremost lesson which many of the natural disasteraffected countries mention is that recovery takes along-term process. A holistic and continual approachis required in planning the process. The ultimate goal
should be to re-build safe, healthy, learning environment
for children; it requires not just learning, not just healthor safety, but it needs a holistic vision for recovery. All
these aspects need to be tackled together.
Country experiences show that there are four challenges
in school-level recovery: the first is infrastructure andbuildings; second, the administrative, management sideof school leaders; third, academic needs; and fourth,in and local community initiatives. This suggests thatstudents' emotions and health. There is no priority ofpolicy should not be solely designed at the central level;

these four. They are all important. What is especiallylocal initiatives should facilitate the central government

important to note, for those working with students in the
educational sector, is how their emotional stresses are

To this end, the capacity building of school-level policy

directly linked to their academic achievement.

making is of critical importance. To facilitate schoollevel initiatives, many countries provide practical

Another lesson frequently quoted by countries is that a
successful implementation will require stakeholder buy-

management training for school leaders.

I would like to share with you one example of suchincludes how to rebuild in-door and out-door space andcapacity building efforts; this is an example from the U.S.

facilities; ensure safety; ensure staff availability to teach;

The theme of the training is "emergency management

resume transportation and food services; and re-equipof schools". The Department of Education supports

supplies such as books and laboratories, etc. They wereschool principals through training. The scope is wide,

all mentioned by the previous speakers who are school

including not only natural disaster, but also school

principals.

shooting (which may not be the focus in the Japan's
The second administrative aspect is how principals
etc. They are all included in the training for school

can manage staff and students. The training includes

principals to find emergency situations in the United

administrative function; staff support; payroll system;

States. As I mentioned earlier, there are four aspects instudent registration; decision making for closing,

the recovery; infrastructure, administrative, academic andopening, reallocating staff and student, etc.

psychological needs.
The third could be the most important aspect for the
The first infrastructural aspect is how school principals

education community, which is academic recovery ofshould be able to manage rebuilding schools. The training

the students, both in a short-term and a long-term. For

a short-term perspective, a swift recovery of "school/difficulties in academic achievement. Research has

academic routines" is very important; this is not only

also shown that youth exposed to violence or trauma

from an academic perspective but also psychological, as

have shown that they are likely to receive lower grade
points; decrease their reading ability; have more negative

administrators and teachers of the school recovery

remarks in their academic records; increase expulsions

plan is also important in order to share the same visionand suspensions; and drop out from high school.

among all the members of the school. Furthermore, thevision should be shared also with the parents as well;So, managing emotional recovery is very important -so communication with parents is also important. In theagain in a short term as well as long term. In the shortlong term, what needs to be paid attention to is the link

term, school principals are pressured to find available

between academic success and the school recovery plan;

services whether it exists internally or externally; they

academic recovery should be embedded into the school

are also expected to support families, staff and children

recovery plan.

while they themselves have been the victim; and they arealso expected to do quick needs assessment and provide

The fourth aspect is students' emotional andpsychological first aid to those who need it as quickly

psychological recovery. As mentioned earlier, thisas possible. With a long term planning, principals could

is closely linked to academic recovery. Researchbring in outside experts because schools cannot solve all

can help us better understand the link. Research has

the problems alone. So, outsourcing some of the tasks

shown traumatized students may engage in aggressive
behaviour; they may also experience difficulty in

this; resources are often available outside school.

concentrating and learning. This could lead to some
However, there are some pitfalls. Matching available
resources and school needs need to be coordinated;otherwise the overflow of support could give burden
on school. Universities, for example, can help in thecoordination and the support of school principals. In
Australia, for example, which was hit by a flood lastyear, a brochure for school principals was prepared,
funded by the government. The Australian National
University developed resources for teachers and school

recovery tools because the people on the ground were so

is, again, the importance of local stake holders. Withoutbusy tackling the issues in front of them that university

local stakeholder buy-in or initiative, implementation can

professors decided to collect all the good practices andfail.

create the recovery tool kit.
Since the time is very limited, I will skip the example of
China because a Chinese speaker is in the programme.
Let me now turn to the second key success factor, "policy

But I'd like to emphasise that the Chinese governmentalignment". What are the lessons learnt? Countries have

response was a very good example of a strong policy

said that well-coordinated policy alignment can help

initiative from the central government with a well-consolidate political will and strategically align resources

planned policy alignment.

with prioritized issues. It can also anchor discussions
between ministries for more effective government

An example from Christchurch, New Zealand, was anleadership. It can also promote more coherent,interesting case in point. This is quite similar to Japan’scoordinated child- and family-centred services with thecase in that the issues include the damage to land. There

shared goals. Also it can provide opportunities to alignmay be some areas which are not ready to rebuild thenot only short-term but also long-term needs.

schools upon. The first policy response of the central
government was that the government would buy the (re-Another policy lesson learnt that countries have reported

usable) land from the households, who have decided

to move to another area. The implication of this for theeducation sector is that some schools will experience a

Looking ahead, there are social and economic concerns

significant reduction in enrolments in school, while atthat would require well-coordinated policy alignment.

the same time others may experience an increase. In line

Due to time constraints, I am not going into detail butwith the population shifts, the Ministry of Education is

I would like to pick up on an equity issue. A growing

planning to reorganize schools because the insurance isinequity is being observed between the Tsunami-affectedunlikely to cover the full costs of repairing all the school

areas and the unaffected. Other country experiencesbuildings; they may need to close, merge or extend

points to an issue of "inequity among the affected areas".

some schools or build new schools. In such a time of

Inequity can exist in different senses. One

confusion, it is very important that school principals andphysical; the most vulnerable could be the elderly and theteachers feel secured about their positions themselves –youngest children. Secondin order for them to provide secure learning environments

some areas are easily reachable while others could

for children. To tackle this challenge, the government is

be physically remote and isolated; they may not getplanning to provide a support package up to 18 months toenough support as much as cities do. Third

help retain school principals and teachers in the affectedeconomic backgrounds; the well-off families could moveareas.

out of the areas; even if they stay in the affected areas,

it could be

it could be geographical;

the socio-

they may have different resources. The previous speakers
Another lesson from New Zealand is to think costalready mentioned how family backgrounds are alreadyefficiency. The Ministry of Education is tasked toaffecting the students. Fourth

create new high schools; they are exploring feasibility

people have enough information and others do not. Our

to share expensive facilities, like laboratories, with theconcern about inequity is that this should not be passed

universities; they believe it could help not only cost-on to the next generation; preventing inequity to growsaving by sharing facilities but also help facilitate

bigger while at the same time promoting social mobility

communication between high school students andshould be already planned today, looking ahead.

university students, like mentors.

information gap; someAnother example of social concerns is increasing
aggressive behaviour. This is an example from Christ
Church, New Zealand. The issue of aggressive behaviourof children in class and during breaks has been raised.
The government decided to support through a chainof action; the education ministry has allocated extra
money to employ supplementary teachers and fund moreteaching time; schools receiving the money hired socalled "floating teachers", who could cover the class if
a teacher needs to spend extra time with the children incase; and students can then receive more personalized
emotional support. This issue needs a long-term
perspective; one school principal from the region said,"the impact has been huge and on-going, and possibly
the worst is still to come". Principals and teachers see
how family backgrounds can affect the socio-emotional
state of children's mind; family backgrounds mean a lot,
not only socio-economic status but also socio-emotional
aspects of parents. When mothers or fathers are stressedat home, children start to behave very aggressively inschool.
On economic concerns, I will have to skip detailingagain due to time. But in all of the issues you see on
the slide, what is important is how "education" can help
respond to these economic challenges. For example,
economic policy aims to reactivate the regional
economic development, for which "education" playsthe key role. Developing human resources is the key inthe creation of new industries or in the recovery of theexisting regional industries. One way to link education
to economic activities is embed such themes by using
existing frameworks - such as curriculum, open hours,
and extracurricular activities, volunteer, and internships.
Another option would be to create new frameworks,
taking advantage of the special recovery zone or special
education zone. Other country experiences tell us that, indoing so, the local perspectives and local needs are very
important.

The third success factor is "innovation in deliveringchild- and family-centred public services". The public
service can be offered through a cross-sectoral one
stop service point by reorganizing the government
compartmentalised public administration.
One relevant example for Japan's today's context, which isan aging society, is a case from Stuttgart, Germany. This
Having more and more old people and individuals living
more in isolation, the City Mayor of Stuttgart decided tocreate a centre called “Multi-Generation House West”.
He created one place where everybody from different
generations would be encouraged to come. For example,
there is a day-care centre for toddlers, which is attached
to apartments for the elderly. There is also a café where
mothers caring for the child or caring for the elder cansit, rest, talk and exchange information with their peers.
There are event halls and fitness rooms where people
can enjoy their hobbies. One building can serve many
purposes. Before, it was not possible because of thesectorism of administration. Child-related services areunder the auspices of education policy; elderly-related
services, social welfare and health policy. With thepolitical decision, the one stop service delivery was madepossible.
Some countries have tried to stay positive and consider
exploring an opportunity to pilot new ideas in the region

and create new services. With the successful pilot
results, the new services could be considered good forthe national policy and the region could be featured asa hub for innovation before launching a new idea at the

Available resources that exist in the third sector andnational level.

communities, such as NGOs and enterprises, can be seenas opportunities to capitalise upon. However, a caution

is needed. When a big Tsunami hit the East Asia, thecountries experienced that there were some competitions
among volunteer organizations, and some overlaps andoversupplies of goods and services which were notreally needed. Capacities to coordinate all of these are ofparticular importance.

Lastly, I would like to introduce the OECD Tohoku
School. It is a new initiative of the OECD, aiming
to empower children in Tohoku to take initiatives,
leadership, and actions. In the long term we would
expect that these children will grow to lead the regional
economic and social developments and create futureindustries and innovations. We would also like tocontribute to the recovery of Tohoku with international
perspectives; we would like to provide opportunities for

The working method is project-based, collaborative
learning. The project goal is for children to organise aninternational event themselves –The Tohoku Festival
in Paris in 2014 - and demonstrate Tohoku’s charm andintroduce Tohoku's industries and culture to the rest of
the world. If you would be interested in supporting thechildren, please indicate your interest. In conclusion, I
would like to re-iterate that the OECD is committed tocontinuing to support Japan's recovery efforts. Thank youvery much.

In this chapter, the panelists deliver talks with a focus

the presentation in Session II. As below, we have further

on two pillars in an attempt to make the discussion as

divided the discussion into four parts, where the panelists

actual situation of the damages to education and thechallenges that the affected schools are faced with in(Panel Discussion Coordinator: Mr. Masaaki Hayo,terms of educational recovery and reconstruction. The

Department of Educational Policy and Evaluation

second pillar is to focus on how we should respond to

Research, National Institute for Educational Policy

the Great East Japan Earthquake and how we should

Research)

prepare ourselves for possible future earthquakesthat might occur in various parts of Japan, given theobservation from an international viewpoint provided inmentioned this earlier. You have to keep the evacuation
action simple. That is the lesson I learnt or we learnt.
In order to keep it simple, you need to create a manual
beforehand, a well thought-out manual and putting
together a manual is not just about writing the manual, it

And you must not adhere to one plan. If one plan does
not apply, then you have to have the next plan, so
you should always prepare plan B. At the Nakahama
Elementary School, we had decided, based on the
manual, that the best way to evacuate would be to moveto the Sakamoto Junior High School but we instead wentere

to the rooftop and we were fortunate that we survived,
but there is a limit to the height of the roof; the rooftop
than that, then all the students would have died and I

What were the lessons learnt from the disaster. If I countwould have been blamed as the principal who did notthem they are numerous, and if I explain all of them itknow what to do but we just barely made it. So, we werewould not be a focused discussion and I have actually

lucky. But time was the key at that time. That was in mynarrowed it down to three but I am going to discuss only

thinking. If we had more time, we could have taken the

two today.

best alternative, which was to evacuate, but you have tothink of Plan B in advance in case you do not have that

One is that evacuation action must be simple. Maybe Itime.

a third-story building, I thought that we would be able to
And even in putting together the manual, I think you havemake it through the Tsunami.

to actually walk the sites. When I arrived in April, I went
up to the roof with the vice principal and I examined

What are the things we wish we had? As I mentioned

the facilities on the rooftop. At Nakahama Elementary

earlier, it was a great damage to us that we completely

School, the rooftop was different from other schools.

lost the data, computer data, in this modern age. This is

There was the attic warehouse on the rooftop and you dodevastating, we have to do something about it, or else the

not really know that unless you actually climb up to thewas helpful in making that split second decision. So, thatpoint. Perhaps we can use cloud computing or have a
network connected with the Board of Education to store
the data in the Board of Education; I think there are many
ways we can counter this issue and we need to consider

children were very obedient. They trusted the grown-ups

them.

and they did not go into panic and they were able to act
in an orderly manner. Well, one of the reasons was halfof the ninety people on the roof top were adults and they

From the viewpoint of accepting the evacuees, whatshowed their strong determination to protect the children.

is important in terms of preparation? With PTA,Children had no one else to rely on but the adults aroundneighboring schools, we need to have a very close

them and so that is what they did.

collaboration and communication. We need to create thatkind of a network. So that would be number one. In our

It is not just a matter of showing your intent to protect

case, all the community members in the Sabara district

the children but to show them all the efforts made byhave joined a support group that was formed in an effort

the adults to try to protect them. At the same time, you

to secure the safety of the children of Sabara, and weshould also think of the things that you should shield

have asked the Ward Mayor to play the role of a groupthe children away from. The moment that the Tsunami

leader and a school governor. With their understanding

struck, we put all the children in that warehouse so thatand support, we meet on regular basis and sharethey would not see the Tsunami arriving and I think

information. That is what we do from normal time. With

that was very effective now that I look back because

neighboring schools, we are working on linking junior

the children did not see that the very frightening scene.

high and elementary school teachers, pupils, guardians

We did not take any videos either. That is why there

and parents, within a junior high school district, as

were no videos showing the arrival of Tsunami in mythe city’s priority project. They have an exchangepresentation. I only have one photograph that I took after

opportunity among two schools, three schools, or even

the Tsunami had turned into a backwash, which I showed

four schools, depending on the school grade they areyou earlier.

in. We have a kind of exchange learning so the children
can communicate and interact with students from otherNow, what are the things we appreciated that we had atschools. So that was another good thing.

of the warehouse was very helpful. However, Nakahama

Secondly, the team; it would be great if you had a kind

Elementary School was a two-story building despite theof a team that could extend help to stricken areas. In thefact it was along the coast side. It should have been atleast three-story high. If we could evacuate to the roof ofwere great help to us. Those school teachers who hadthey were not home-room teachers, so they

never pass over that wall or dike and that Tsunami cannot

were flexible. They could handle all the administrative

reach this point. I think that, without such preoccupation,

work, including matters related to receiving evacuees, so

you have to do the drills and exercise.

dual roles

I thought in terms of preparation that was really a goodthing that we had. Therefore, if we could establish in

In Sanriku region, there is a traditional term ‘Tsunami

advance a support team for school disaster prevention

Tendenko.’ The term was coined to prevent fromconsisting of both working and retired teachers, thatvictimizing yourself as a result of searching and looking

would be a great help.

for someone else. Yes, that occurred in this Tsunami as
and rescue other people. It is important that children and

There are 21 schools facing the sea and I visited all of

their families have a thorough discussion on this issue

these 21 schools after the Tsunami. Tsunami disasterin advance. Adults younger than 80 years old, including

preparedness education, I asked many times ‘What ismyself, have never experienced such a large, great

most important in the preparedness education? The

Tsunami. We only had knowledge of Chilean Tsunami atanswer from them was drill, exercise and drill.

best. So nobody was there to predict the scale of Tsunami

I received a question from the floor about the DVD

that we had this time. We should always remember tomaterials for disaster-preparedness education and drills.

never assume that Tsunami will not reach this area.

The question is ‘What should we do when we face
unprecedented scale of disaster?’ I would like to answer

Regarding the Tsunami shelters that we prepared, this isthat we should both use the DVDs for learning and takethe primary evacuation site. People ask me what children

the drills. If you say that there are no materials available,

should do once they get there. But the important thing is

I would advise you to look at Mr. Akira Yoshimura’s

to evacuate to a safer place after the children get to thebook based on the history of the Sanriku-oki Earthquake

shelters and receive instructions from adults there. So theand Tsunami, you will find many essays written by the

Tsunami Shelters should stand where children would beelementary school children back then. So you can use

able to get right away when we realize that a Tsunami

them as the material for education. For Tsunami andhas hit. Therefore we need a strong network of voluntary

other kinds of natural disasters, you can device andcommunity organization, otherwise children would not

use them in innovative manners but when it comes tobe protected. While at school, we have school on higher
grounds in this area, so unless the principal or teachers

learn such mechanisms of earthquake and Tsunami.

make mistakes in their decision making, everyone will
be rescued, as was the case in this Tsunami incident.

Many people say that this Tsunami was an unexpected

However, preparedness in the voluntary community

one in terms of its scale but we have to view that fromorganization is not in place yet in some areas, and thena different perspective; we have to cope with Tsunami

they need to have the mindset that you save all the

not as an unexpected event. Neither can we speculate

children in the community. Without such understanding,on the range of Tsunami. There is a school with a dike

I am afraid that another catastrophe may happen in theor embankment of 10 meters in height and then many

future. So, there needs to be a close communication

people thought that Tsunami could not go over that dike.

between schools and community-based voluntary

Once that Tsunami passed over the dike, and then theydisaster-prevention organization on a regular basis.

immediately started to evacuate. That was one case at
one particular school. Everyone at the school was able
to evacuate but we can never assume that Tsunami canSo, the lessons learnt from the disaster; there were many.

As I said in my presentation, it is important to determine

then they returned only to become victims. That is what

beforehand where to evacuate at school level and at

I heard. In that regard, this is a major lesson we need tomunicipality level. Had there been an established systemhave learnt.

of evacuation, it would have given a sense of easiness tothe students and the parents or the guardians when they

Also, in terms of communication, telephones - both

evacuated.

cellular phones and fixed lines - became unusable andhow do we send information in that circumstance?

One of the good things we found was that: in Hamadori

During evacuation, we were not able to make calls bothregion, the impact of typhoons and strong winds oftencaused the JR Joban line to cease operations. So how toin anxiety, so that is some of the lessons.

contact the guardians and children was an issue. We havea school website and we have a QR code, and we had
all the students register the code to their cellular phones
and sign up to the website of the school. We showed
them how they would be able to get the various kinds ofinformation through the website and we did that in June,
2010. We had all the students registered at one time.
That was one avenue for providing information to all thechildren who were evacuated in different areas and thatIn terms of PR, also, we utilized that the QR code forthe emergency communication and that was something
we were very satisfied with. We do the same thing at
Koriyama High School as well.
Concerning the occurrence of a major earthquake andOur concern is about providing mental care. The biggest

Tsunami, we knew about them to some extent, but weissue at the school is the slow recovery of children who

did not give any consideration to the nuclear power

lost their parent or both parents. The stoic children who

plant accident. And how to respond to such an accident,

tend to try to persevere, but their recovery is delayed.

we should have done training on it, but we did not. So,

We have them go through school counseling and weknowledge is useful only when you can act on them,

get advice from the counselors. We also take advantagethat is the meaning of understanding and so in that senseof the joint class; one teacher teaches while the other

we were not ready to take concrete actions. We need toteacher provides personal instruction to our school

establish a base so that it would be useful in the future.

children. That is how we try to provide care to our school

Since we do not know what will happen where, so I thinkchildren. So, that is how we try to counter that issue.

that kind of mindset would be helpful.
In relation to my belief that it would be difficult to
We also need to learn the mechanism of nature. I think

recover from this earthquake and Tsunami if wethat is one very important thing I have learnt. At near thejust thought only about the children, I talked about

port of Ukedo in Namie, the elderly people remembered

Kagura Dance. The parents, guardians, they have had

there had been the earthquakes, but they experienced

a devastating experience as well and they are – theirvery little Tsunamis in the past, so they evacuated but

feelings are down at their homes. The elderly peoplesixth graders it might be different, but for lower grade
and that impact is going to be long-term. That is what I
felt.
Now, the current psychological state of children. Now
that many children have moved from their evacuation
In terms of emotional support, psychological support tocenters to temporary housing, they are feeling relieved,

parents – care for the parents would become even more

but they still have a long way to go. Some principals say

important from now on. At the moment, out of 76, 30

that they think it is not bad if many people stay together

pupils of evacuees are with us. Many of them have toat such a large centre but they are concerned about

spend 20-30 minutes commuting, their parents give themchildren living where more than 50 percent of houses

a ride to/from school, and they still live in a kind of awere affected or damaged by the disaster. We have to pay

rented place. Only four students can walk to the schoola close attention to the children; we would like to givefrom their temporary houses. So, their parents have toadvice to them.

do a lot of things for their children. From the Prefecture,
there has been an emergency dispatch of counselors
to our schools once a week since June. So, space to

How do we take care of the children’s mental states?

offer that kind of a consultation should be secured andWe had two emergency counselors at the (Tsushima)

distributing the leaflets was also carried out. These are

branch school, and I think that helped to settled thekids; during the break and after school and when theychildren down, and helped them to focus on learning.

have issues, they can talk to the counselors. If theyClasses started one month late, but we borrowed spaces

have problems, then the counselors also can talk to theat another school, so we were unable to do school events.

children’s parents as well.

We were able to conduct the lessons smoothly and makeup for the one month delay, but we were not able to holdthe school events in many instances.

force the children to tell teachers about the earthquake,about the disaster. However, as far as the nuclear power

So, we decided to utilize our human network. One

plant issue is concerned, this is really an adult thing. It

former student is the President of a brewery company

has something to do with the nuclear policy, about thein Nihonmatsu City and I asked him to lecture theCentral Government’s policy. Perhaps you could take thishistory of Nihonmatsu to the students studying at theopportunity to help children develop a kind of criticalsatellite school in the city. He very willingly accepted

attitude towards the policy, so maybe it is not necessarily

my offer and he told the students, ‘You experienced thea bad thing to make them talk about this incident.’earthquake at the age of 16-18. That gave you a hardship,Well, when I say ‘I do not want to force them,’ I do

but you were able to accumulate various experiences in

not want them to think once again about the horrifying

evacuation centres at an early stage of your lives. That

images at the time of the Tsunami and earthquake. We

is an asset for you’. He also said that the bureau had

do not want the children to have that secondary trauma;

faced three crises in the past, which they were able to‘what was your problem?’, ‘How did you feel when theovercome. I think that was helpful to uplift the students’earthquake hit your place?’ That is not what I wanted

spirits.

to do. About the radiation and the nuclear power plantissue, elementary school pupils cannot really – it will be

Of course, there are limits to what individuals can do,
but if you look around, there are people who are willingto offer help, so it is important to use their help to try tomaintain the mental health of the children.

We have received assistance from around the world,which is very much appreciated. The supporters from

With regard to the school trips and excursions, we wereoutside the country -- they are very speedy, and they

able to carry them out with the help from other sources. I

provide recurrent support, without asking for anything inthink students would remember that for the rest of theirreturn. But there seem to be a concentration of support

lives and as they grow up, they would be converted to be

to the affected schools and dealing with all these offers

people who would want to help others. So children in thewas very large workload. In fact, we had to assign a
dedicated person in charge, so I think that if the donors

hanging on. At the same time, we should not press them

could think about that burden that would be very muchtoo much. I think we do need some occasions for them toappreciated.

relax, so I think school events are important.
At a certain point, there was a time when certain thingsneeded to be supplied immediately and there wer othertimes when the things we need could have been supplied
at a later phase. So, how support should be offered may
be different depending on the situation. That is what I
learnt. There is a period of time when you need to havethese things sent to you but then after that we could havesome vendor locally take care of that so that they coulddeliver the goods. That would help to revive the local
economy. If you just send the goods then that would not
maintaining their livelihoods. So, we would like tomake such requests to support local business in terms ofproviding relief efforts.

Individuals, organizations and corporations

many

many people encouraged us; many people tried to cheer
us up. But it would be appreciated very much if you
could give us not just a one-time support but a continued
support for a long term. About supplies, we received somany school bags and we could give many of them toother schools if there would be new students in the next
year. Because we did not know when we would receive

needs-based support would be much appreciated. So, youneed a kind of a contact person. Sometimes the supplies
were delivered directly to us, and sometimes delivered
via the Education Board of the city. In accepting thesupport activities directed to schools, if we felt that

As for the question regarding the division of the children

the contents were educational and not something thatand other evacuees. Basically, an evacuation center iswould cause any confusion, then we would be able toa temporary place to stay. However, when a school isincorporate those external help.

designated as an evacuation center, guardians would
come and use a gymnasium or classrooms, along

Some of the questions were related to this shocking

with their children for evacuation. At the same time,

power of natural disaster. ‘How are you going to use

schools are required to continue to provide education,

this experience that left us with the feeling of regret

while hosting evacuees. At certain schools, they took

and sadness, when faced with such a powerful force

this opportunity to enhance the school education inof nature?’ It is a very difficult question. We wantcooperation with the local people. The example ofchildren to overcome the difficulties, we want them to

Akamae elementary school, as I mentioned in mybe courageous, we want them to feel that, ‘oh, I waspresentation, was taken up in the TV program the dayable to overcome this difficulty. I am in a new school

before yesterday.

but now I am enjoying the new company, I have madenew friends.’ I want children to feel that kind of the selfAbout support from NPOs. We received a lot, fromschool bags to sandals. At the school that I work now,
to feel that, ‘why can I not take up that challenge, I canthere were twelve students coming in from the Soso
district, and graduates donated school uniforms for thosestrong and courageous.

incoming students. Thus, there are many ways assistanceis provided and received.

Regarding the volunteers and NPOs in Iwate Prefecture,

What is most significant about the assistance from

Principal Association for Elementary and Junior Highthe prefecture and town is the role of intermediary

School played a very important role. Well, I heard that(coordinator), who would act as a mediator between

whenever I visited the schools in the area they said theyschools and NPOs etc. If we had more of them, we could

appreciated the support for pencils, erasers, rulers, shoes,

have been more functional. There must be someone

and backpacks, and other school supplies. Whatever

who would listen to the schools’ needs and what are thethey needed at that time was supplied by the Association

responses needed. If there is an intermediary person, he/as requested, and they were very pleased. Then that

she would be able to provide various kinds of information

relationship developed through the interaction of theand understand wishes from the ground, which would beclub activities and cultural event activities at Junior Highhelpful.

Schools and Bazaar activities by the PTA.
I think it was a very good thing.
So, what is needed now? At the Board of Education,
we had to review from scratch, and we monitored thesituation of the eleven schools in our area, which isincluded in the resume, and we are taking record of theactual activities for recovery. That will strengthen the‘zest for living,’ based upon the Course of Study.

and I was praying that we would be able to walk backdown these stairs next morning. The responsibility of theprincipal is large, it is heavy
or notThinking about the future, we were really working hard

whether you are there

but I was glad that I was there to protect thechildren.

to provide good education to our children and I reallybraced myself. I suppose that we were having and thatwas the so-called “Harlem era” where people really

Someone asked:‘You must have been very busy, youexerted their full efforts. But, now I think we must

must have been overburdened, and perhaps you did notrecognize that there are limits to what we can do and wehave enough teachers or instructors?’ Originally, we

do not overstretch ourselves. I think that is an important

were going to have so-called combined classes; one

factor. We will achieve reconstruction, we are a Tohoku

class having pupils from different grades, but in the end

people; we have the perseverance, we will rebuild.

because we received evacuees, we no longer had those

There might be an impression that we get heated up andcombined classes, and our pupils were able to makebecome cold very quickly, and that is how Tohoku is. But

new friends and develop rich social relationship as we
received new evacuees. So I took it as a very positive
thing. At our school, we have not just home room

barriers of all the systems already in place.

teachers, but assistant home room teachers, which is veryrare for an elementary school. Also, we have dual-post

Now, I have received several questions with regard tocourse instructors, who teach eight to ten hour classes, so‘what should we add to the education going forward?’

I think we were able to reduce the burden.

So we survived, we barely survived and this time adults
were able to protect the children but there are various
conditions where a disaster can strike when school is not

The Miyako City Hall was initially designated as anin session, late at night, or when our children are walking

evacuation site, but it was isolated due to the tsunami.

to/from the schools, we have to protect them at all times

So, the school faculty members had to play an importantand in order to protect them we have to educate them sorole. At some schools, where the community’s voluntarythat they can protect themselves. That is what I feel anddisaster-prevention organization worked any time,that is what I would like to focus on.

things went smoothly, but in other areas where sucha community network was not established, faculty

I have some more. We were exchanging information

members and school personnel made extra efforts, joinedwith the Board of Education very frequently. Yamamotoby the Prefecture Board of Education as well as the

Town Hall building was severely damaged and we hadmunicipal government. There are totally 37 schools inthese sessions for school principals in that building. We

our city, so other schools on the mountain hills came to

had to run out every time there was an aftershock but wereported what the situations were and what we had to do.
So, I think we were able to have a very frequent contact

About the question on the block heating

theywith the Board and have a good communication, so

said it cost 50 million yen on the budget to install the

we have to have the determination and be able to makeblock heating system for Miyako City’s public Omoe

decisions. The Principals’ responsibility is very large; we

Elementary School. They had half of the cost subsidized

must make decisions and be prepared. When I made thatby the MEXT. The block heating is to be installed into

decision to go up to the rooftop, I was climbing the stairs

another newly built school. They would use midnightpower service for lower price, and play an effective role

events we communicate with various agencies andduring the power cut offs like this time.

we also have our own dose meters, so we use them tomeasure the radioactivity or the radiation dose. It takes

In this calamity, we lost three children picked up bytime and effort but we try to provide detailed explanation

their guardians and one of the guardians at elementary

to the parents. I think that is the only thing that we canand junior high schools in Miyako City. This was ado. Now, after decontamination of Namie main school

result of the request made by the guardians, but theand Tsushima branch school, the students should be able

principal, teachers and all other people involved must

to return to the Soso district. That is what I hope, thankbe saddened. To prevent this kind of accident in theyou.

future, we must build mutual trust by ensuring disasterprevention education, raising awareness towards disasterprevention, and conducting evacuation drills involving
local residents.

S o m e p e o p le s ai d t h at th e ex p r es s io n s o n th eteachers'faces were becoming paler. Certainly, the fatigue
does not appear immediately but it shows up after sometime. Especially at the satellite schools, the teachers arecommuting long distances and they are commuting tomultiple schools. So, there is a lot of moving and that

I would like to mention three key words for recovery

adds to the stress. In the second semester, the situation

towards the future. First one is "closing the disparity or

has improved quite dramatically with the support of thosegap". Gap or disparity should not be widened or should

involved.

not be fixed. In economic terms in particular, disparity
is already being observed; many people have lost their

Concerning the questions from the floor, one of them

employment. Research has shown that socio-economic

read ‘after nuclear power plant damage and theirstatus of parents is associated with student academic
achievement. That is what we have started to observe.

do you educate the children about disaster prevention

To close the gap, what schools can do is, learning fromconcerning nuclear power plants?’

initiatives in other countries, to use summer vacation
and after school hours. This approach is often taken not

We had a drill recently and I talked about the Hamadori

for emergency-specific cases but for general cases inexperience; one second difference makes all thecountries like the United States and the Scandinavian

difference. So there was a case, where the passengers

countries to narrow the student achievement gaps. We

in the front seats survived but those at the back werewould also have to pay attention to parents, to ensure

engulfed by the Tsunami while evacuating by car. So, I

good (learning and well-being) home environments foremphasized on the importance of really focusing on thetheir children.

drills, the trainings.
The second key word is "shifting support from goods to
As for the radioactivity, we have to explain to the parents

human resources". We have heard that there have beenvery clearly concerning the decontamination of schools.

already sufficient supply of goods but would still needSo, there is new data made available to them. In school

more support with human resources. Previous speakers

has said, there is a need for counselors, volunteers, staff,
and administrative assistants as well as the people who
can serve as intermediary. What is more, the ratio ofchildren to one teacher is very high in Japan comparedto other OECD member countries. Therefore, in order totake a better care of individual students, more teachers
can be allocated in general but in Tsunami-affectedareas, in particular, to allow more personalised care. We
cannot rely on teachers for everything; it is impossible
for teachers to do everything. New jobs, like "School
Reconstruction Manager", for instance, could be created;
who will be tasked to manage fund-raising matters
as well as the other kind of necessary administrative/
management work when principals and other teachers are
too busy to do such work. They can visit foundations andopportunities with ‘social corporate responsibility’. Thiscan be at the same time an opportunity to create new jobs
in the education sector by other than teachers.
The last key word is "the pairing system". This has
been already adopted in many countries, including
Japan. There are different levels, though. At the schoollevel, speakers have talked about sister schools as well
as schools in the neighbourhood. For the longer-term
perspective, a pairing system could be further exploredat the regional level. I had to skip in my presentation
but the pairing system between regional governments in
China has been very successful. We need to understandthe Chinese approach may not be directly applicablein Japan's context, but the Chinese regional pairing
approach has made the swift recovery possible. With thestrong leadership, the central government establishednumerical targets. The government also obliged awealthier region to be paired with a disaster-stricken
region and obliged the former to invest one percent of
its budget to the reconstruction of their pairing region.
In this case, the central government backed up such
wealthier local governments by giving them tax credits
as incentives.

On May 12, 2008 a huge magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province,
China, causing enormous losses to Sichuan Province’s education system. Some 13,768 school sustained
extensive damage, and the direct economic loss exceeded 30 billion yuan; 5,335 children died or are
missing, causing enormous psychological damage to teachers and students in the disaster area. All school
education and educational and learning activities were discontinued, the normal education and learning
system fell into a state of complete confusion, and the educational environment was destroyed.
Over the three years since the earthquake, the Chinese Government has undertaken efforts to overcome
the earthquake damage and aid earthquake victims as well as disaster restoration measures by callingon the entire country, fully utilizing the advantages of the national system of achieving huge projects
through concentrated effort to plan and implement a “pairing support” system under which one province
or city provides assistance to a county that sustains severe damage in a disaster. Through such efforts,
the task of achieving recovery within three years could be generally completed in the second year andfully completed within the third. Disaster restoration measures achieved spectacular results. Education in
the disaster area underwent such enormous changes that it was as if the entire system had been replaced.
Today the most beautiful buildings in the disaster area are schools, and the brightest sight is the smiles of
the children.
The educational reconstruction that has been carried out in Sichuan Province following the earthquake isdevelopmental reconstruction. Instead of simply duplicating the past, further upgrading and innovations
have been implemented on existing foundations, achieving dramatic development. In undertaking
educational reconstruction following the disaster, we adhered to a “life-first, people-orientated”
philosophy at each stage—emergency relief at the time of the disaster, recommencement of educationand classes, recovery/rebuilding, and full-scale reconstruction—in accordance with the gradual natureof educational reconstruction. In addition to reconstructing educational hardware in accordance toeducational reconstruction laws, effort was poured into promoting the reconstruction of educational
software as well achieving across-the-board and balanced sustainable development by combining
education reconstruction and long-term development with the aim, while at the same time promoting thereconstruction of education and science in the Sichuan Province disaster area.

Complete recommencement of education/classes was positioned as a task of the highest importance andthe Sichuan Province Education Department issued statements and provided guidance regarding efforts
to recommence education/classes. Recommencement of classes was proactively promoted using fivedifferent formats throughout the Sichuan Province disaster area: recommencement of classes at local
evacuation centers, recommencement of classes through adjustment of individual school curricula,
recommencement of classes at other schools and in other counties or provinces, recommencement ofclasses with temporary supplemental classes, and recommencement of classes in remaining schoolbuildings following safety appraisal. At the same time, priority was placed in recommencing classes forthird-year high school students, third-year junior high school students, and students in evacuation centersor who had evacuated to other regions, with the task of resuming classes for students in the disaster area
preparing for university or high school entrance examinations safely accomplished. By September 1,
2008, the goal of complete recommencement of education/classes so that “all students can study in a safe
and clean environment” had been achieved.

The following measures were taken in response to problems such as poor educational environments
inadequate management systems.
Firstly, management of prefabricated school buildings was strengthened and a special safety system forboarding school safety management systems, food hygiene safety management systems, and drinking
water management systems. Through these measures, the safety of the lives of teachers and students
at prefabricated schools was effectively assured, and the normal order of education and learning at
prefabricated schools was swiftly restored.
Secondly, class schedules were adjusted. In view of the requirement for student safety and health, withrespect to time schedules, a format of intensive classes and decentralized classes was used, while at thesame time a system combining long (40 minutes) and short (20 minutes) classes was also implemented,
Thirdly, innovations were made to educational methods. In order to respond to the special environment
posed by education in a disaster area, teachers were encouraged to make their own teaching tools
and improve educational systems and methods. For example, in the case of physical activity, insteadof activities during long rest periods between classes taking place outdoors, manual exercises were
performed, and in the case of experimental education in such subjects as physics, biology, chemistry, andscience, mainly demonstration experiments were carried out. Through these measures, the standard ofeducation in the disaster area was maintained to ensure there was no drop in quality.

In order to respond to the necessity for educational reconstruction following the disaster, the Sichuan
Province Education Department organically integrated life education, safety education, mental healtheducation health education, fire prevention/disaster reduction education, and other educational areasinto the three curriculum areas of “Lifestyle, Life, and Safety”, re-compiled local curricula educational
materials. The reconstructed local curricula was based on student growth, emphasized student life

the expression of curriculum content is more relevant to students’ lifestyles. Good educational results
have been achieved since the new educational materials have been used, and in addition to improving
students’ all-round skills, good mental health and lifestyles are also being formed. In deepening reformof basic educational curricula and promoting capability education, positive results are being realized.

After the earthquake damage occurred, under the direction of the national government, Sichuan Province
carried out specialist intervention, swiftly implementing large-scale and sustainable counseling andand sustaining effects, and taking care to enable many administrative workers involved in the education
system in the disaster area as well as teachers and students to spend the period following the disaster inwhich they faced psychological risks as calmly as possible. Consequently, there have been absolutely no
precedents for teachers or students exhibiting extreme behavior due to mental problems, and the stabilityof schools and society is being maintained.

Firstly, measures were taken to ensure that mental care was provided to all those in need of it. A metalcare handbook was swiftly compiled and published, and some 350,000 copies were distributed freeof charge to elementary and junior high schools in the disaster area, covering teachers and students ina broad area and swiftly spreading scientific knowledge about post-disaster self-metal care. Weekly
mental guidance classes of one hour duration were established, spreading psychological knowledge andenhancing teachers’ and students’ self-help and mutual assistance capabilities.

and systematically.
Thirdly, training was secured for all psychological counselors providing mental guidance who were
eligible for training. The standard of mental care for teachers was raised by proactively planning andimplementing training activities for providing mental care after various disasters.

Firstly, a four-scale system of post-disaster mental maintenance was constructed, realizing thesystemization of mental care. Accordingly, a four-scale system—province, city, county, and school—
was formed. Specialist organizations were established and specialists were put in charge of mental healtheducation and training, and education research groups at mental health education centers were launchedaccordingly. Psychological counseling rooms were established in large schools, while mental service

stations to be shared by small schools were established in district units. At schools where buildings had
been destroyed and/or teachers and/or students killed, mental service education and research groups were
established, with a minimum of one to two experienced psychological counselors being assigned to eachschool; for other schools, joint education and research groups were established in district units.
Secondly, stable specialist teams were trained, creating teachers specializing in the provision of mental
care. Over approximately five years, while gradually realizing our target of deploying one specialist
mental health education teacher for every 1,500 students, we have been enforcing requirements that
Thirdly, by strengthening construction of curricula for post-disaster mental health activities, we wereable to firmly establish mental health care activities as a norm for the future while including mental
health education in classroom activities. Fully utilizing content related to the local teaching materials“Lifestyle, Life, and Safety” for compulsory education in Sichuan Province, general knowledge about
mental health was diffused and assistance provided to enable students to learn psychological adaptation
methods as well as gain general mental health information, cultivating good mental grounding.
Fourthly, using specialized mental health-related software and television programs in school
psychological counseling rooms, efforts were made to spread information about future mental care
activities.
basis for future mental care. Topical research related to such subjects as life education and mental healthrelated to post-disaster mental reconstruction.

Teachers are schools’ most important resources and provide a tremendous psychological driving force
in school administration. Adhering to the view that teachers are also valuable assets, reconstruction ofteachers following the disaster was given considerable attention.

After firmly confirming the extent of the teacher shortage at schools in the disaster area as well as
the needs for teachers required when actually resuming education and classes, the Sichuan Province
Education Department considered plans for teacher allocation in the disaster area, setting the numberof students per class, and establishing school grades and classes; calculated the deficient number ofteachers; formulated short-term and medium-to-long-term plans aimed at the reconstruction of teacher
ranks; and swiftly dispatched more than 7,780 supplementary teachers to the disaster area (of which 5,242
were invited teachers, 1,509 were special-duty teachers invited through the implementation of the “Planfor Special Duty School Teachers at the Compulsory Education Level in Agricultural Communities”; andover 1,030 were assigned to schools in the disaster area as support from areas both within and outside
Sichuan Province). In this way, the needs for recommencement of education and classes as well as

Plans such as the “Plan for Assisting Training of Elementary and Junior High School Teachers in the
Earthquake Disaster Area”, “Plan for Mental Rehabilitation Education Training for Junior High School
Teachers in the Earthquake Disaster Area”, and “Training Project for Enhancing the Administrative
Skills of Elementary School and Junior High School Principals in the Sichuan Province Earthquake
Disaster Area” were implemented and training was provided for all school teachers in the disaster area,with 4,119 elementary school and junior high school principals undergoing training.

Firstly, all-around treatment of teachers in the disaster area was improved. Processes for damage
compensation and restitution for workplace injury for teachers in the disaster area were implemented
appropriately and on-time and full payment of salaries for teachers in the disaster area was guaranteed,appropriately improving the economic treatment of many teachers in the earthquake disaster area.
Secondly, condolence visits to teachers in the earthquake disaster area were carried out appropriately,with visits made to elementary school and junior high school teachers deep within the earthquake
disaster area.
Thirdly, job title review policies were adjusted when appropriate. Adjustments were made to job title
review policies for elementary school and junior high school teachers in the earthquake disaster area,with job title evaluations carried out for elementary school and junior high school teachers in areas
sustaining especially serious damage and policy support provided accordingly.
Fourthly, reward/incentive activities were proactively implemented. The reward/incentive system was
improved and exceptional teachers who had undertaken efforts to assist earthquake victims or recovery
from the damage in the earthquake disaster area were rewarded and provided with incentives in various
forms.

Under the general framework of the “Wenchuan Earthquake Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction
Ordinance”, the Sichuan Province Education Department issued documents on May 30 and at appropriate
times submitted guidance opinions regarding plans for school recovery and reconstruction following
the disaster. These opinions take into account such factors as integration of school reconstruction into
overall plans for disaster area reconstruction, population changes, economic development, and theand consideration of reconstruction and development. Furthermore, there is a need for efforts to be madeschools with distinctive features, emphasizing local and ethnic characteristics, while respecting school
history and traditions. There is also a need to strengthen the provision of services to local communities
and enhance capacity for transmitting local culture, as well as ensure that reconstructed schools can also
be used as public emergency evacuation centers.

In accordance with the principle of contributing to the improvement of educational quality and theefficacy and benefits of school administration as well as the optimization of educational structure,“establishing location, scale, and function” was emphasized and the composition and structure of schools
overall adjusted so as to enable optimal integration of school resources. For example, in an urban areawith a population of 300,000 residents, one special support school was constructed in accordance withregulations. In each town or village, splendid central kindergartens have been constructed, and as a
general rule normal high schools and junior vocational schools in agricultural areas are being built on
land owned by the County People’s Government. Junior high schools were built in central towns andvillages, while elementary schools were positioned intensively and kindergartens and special support
schools were constructed in accordance with actual needs. In the case of completely reconstructed
integrated junior high and senior high schools, as a general rule the high school, junior high school,and elementary school must be constructed separately. The number of nine-year integrated schools is
being increased, appropriately leaving educational bases in counties in mountainous areas, while theconstruction of boarding schools is being promoted, expanding the scale of boarding schools and therelative number of boarders.

Experimental laboratories (laboratory buildings), sporting grounds, multi-purpose facilities such asmusic rooms and art rooms, computer rooms, boarding school dormitories, living facilities (at BeichuanHigh School, not only brightly lit, spacious classrooms and clean, uncluttered dormitories but also
experimental laboratories, a library, and sporting grounds have all been newly constructed, and all are
high-level facilities) were constructed and positioned in accordance with standards. Barrier-free facilities
and equipment (special paths, special sanitary equipment, and rehabilitation facilities) have been
installed for physically disabled people at schools in the disaster area that sustained extensive damage.
Disparities between cities and agricultural villages, between regions, and between schools in terms ofschool administration environment and allocation of resources have clearly been reduced and a trend
towards equalization observed, realizing historical leaps forward.

Guided by the “Wenchuan Earthquake Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction Ordinance”, the Sichuan
Province Education Department swiftly activated emergency response mechanisms for education,systemizing various tasks including overcoming the earthquake damage and aiding earthquake victims
as well as education reconstruction and providing powerful organization and systematic security forpost-disaster reconstruction of education while at the same time improving systems for informationtransmission, pairing support, school safety, and reconstruction supervision and management.

On the day that the earthquake occurred, the Sichuan Province Education Department immediately set up

a “Leading Group for Activities to Overcome the Earthquake Damage and Aid Earthquake Victims” withdamage/aiding earthquake victims, disease prevention/treatment activities, and other activities
related to the safe recommencement of classes in elementary and junior high schools throughout theprovincial education system. Information related to schools in the disaster area was swiftly collected
and the process and status of overcoming earthquake damage/aiding earthquake victims and recovery/
television reports, and special programs on Sichuan Province Education Television, conveying the realityof aid for earthquake victims and the reconstruction process.

Firstly, a system of one-on-one support was implemented in specific areas. Concrete measures andmethods were decided based on the actual needs of each area, and a system proactively implemented
each provided support to a severely affected town or village in 13 severely affected counties. Specialists
from education administrative departments and education research institutions in areas throughout
vocational school education management, education research, and mental health education were selected
and dispatched to municipal counties in the disaster area where they served on a temporary basis,
Secondly, effective implementation of national pairing support mechanisms was secured. The Sichuan
Province Education Department issued documents and contacted and communicated with those
providing support with regard to the determination of affected areas and schools requiring support.
Support provision plans were jointly considered and clear rules for items such as the implementation of
those providing and those requiring support.

Safe educational activity classes were implemented and systems were put in place for improving school
safety and security, preventing and treating disease, sanitation and epidemic prevention, food safety, anddrinking water safety, ensuring the safety of teachers and students.

A “Leading Group for Supervising and Managing Funds and Supplies for Overcoming the Earthquake
Damage and Aiding Earthquake Victims” was set up to accept funds and supplies for overcoming theearthquake damage and aiding earthquake victims within the provincial education system and supervise/
consider payment, logistics, usage, and management. “Opinions Concerning the Implementation of thePlan for School Recovery and Reconstruction Following the Great Wenchuan Earthquake Disaster”
were implemented, and local governments implemented a unified system for planning/construction,
management, bid invitation, procurement, supervision/administration, and acceptance inspections forschool construction projects.

A few days after the earthquake occurred, the President of the National Institute of Education Sciences,
Professor Yuan Zhenguo, personally visited the disaster area as head of a support team, and together
with the Sichuan Province Education Department and Sichuan Province Institute of Education
Sciences carefully considered and formulated plans for supporting education reconstruction activities
following the Wenchuan earthquake disaster. This took the form of a Central Education and Science
Research Institute’s special work fund project, which was established with the theme of “Research
on Reconstruction of Education in Sichuan Province Following the Great Wenchuan Earthquake
Disaster of May 12, 2008” and for which I acted as the senior scientist. In order to establish a researchteam, the taskforce team assembled the strengths of universities, vocational schools, and scientificresearch institutions both within and outside Sichuan Province as well as education administrative
departments and schools in the disaster area. Research was carried out from six perspectives—“mental
reconstruction”, “teacher reconstruction”, “education/learning reconstruction”, “school culturereconstruction”, “construction of systems for education reconstruction following the disaster”, and“review of valuable experiences that could be called a heritage known as disaster aid”—with the aimof “contributing to decision-making related to educational reconstruction, guiding the implementationof education, seeking laws for education within reconstruction, and summarizing experiences related
to reconstruction”. While supporting overall reconstruction efforts, research has been producing resultswith both educational and practical value.
Seven specialist books have been published, of proposals related to 23 survey research reports or policies
were provided highly valuable insight for formulating decisions and documents regarding educational
reconstruction, and these proposals were utilized effectively. Policies, document sets, and materials on
Sichuan Province Education Department to Yushu County in Qinghai Province and Zhugqu County in
Gansu Province, and these materials are being used as important reference information for educational
reconstruction in disaster areas in these two locations.
Currently, reconstruction of education in the disaster area is already approaching the time of complete
recovery, and there are many new problems that require research. From experience gained in relation todisaster relief overseas, we know that trauma caused by huge disasters remains for a long time. We are
faced with the question of how to implement mental guidance and mental health education for teachersand students in the disaster area both appropriately and in a sustainable manner, as well as the questionof how to strengthen the formulation of teacher ranks as well as raise the quality of education andlearning in the disaster area. We aim to improve to the maximum the operational environment for school,
while at the same time focusing on such issues as pouring effort into improving educational quality
and management standards as far as possible and enhancing the sustainable development potential ofschools in the disaster area. Within the “Sichuan Province Medium-to-long-term Educational Reformand Development Plan Outline (2010-2020)”, we have proposed a “Plan for Improving Elementary
and Junior High School Education in the Earthquake Disaster Area” with the aim of resolving these
problems.
Both China and Japan are countries that experience frequent earthquakes and have accumulated a wealth

of uniquely distinctive experiences with regard to risk avoidance and overcoming disaster damage.
This symposium will contribute to the strengthening of cooperative systems between our two countries,
providing a forum for exchange and sharing expertise, experience, and research results regarding thereconstruction of education following disasters, and will provide wonderful opportunities for study andlearning. The symposium also has wonderful educational and referential value for the promotion of
educational reconstruction following the earthquake disaster in Sichuan Province.

future.
Thank you for your kind attention.

Deputy Director-General, Sichuan Province Education Department
From Mianning County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province. China. Graduated from Southwest
University for Nationalities, politics and history major. Currently Deputy Director-General of the
Sichuan Province Education Department. Has previously engaged in educational management andadministrative management in the Liangshan Prefectural Ethnic Leaders School (Sichuan Yi Language
School), Ganluo County, Liangshan Prefecture.
After the Wenchuan Earthquake occurred on 12 May 2008, as Deputy Director-General in charge ofdisaster recovery in the Sichuan Province Education Department, took leadership for organization
and reconstruction operations of the post-disaster Sichuan education system. Mainly was in charge ofa series of duties such as the evacuation of students from the disaster stricken areas, the planning of
their return to school and the restart of classes and the delivery of that plan, the planning, delivery andimplementation of counseling and mental health education for students in the disaster area, as well as
the reconstruction of schools affected by the disaster. Also presided over the Central Education andScience Research Institute’s special work fund project titled: “Research on Reconstruction of Educationin Sichuan Province Following the Great Wenchuan Earthquake Disaster of May 12, 2008”. The resultsof the research were chosen as the FY2010 Sichuan Provincial Government’s Excellent Political Affairs
14th Educational Scientific Research Results as well as third prize in the 4th National Educational

Important works such as ‘Steadfastly Maintaining the Reconstruction of Science, Promoting the
Education of Sichuan Province’ have been presented in publications such as Educational Research and
The World of Educational Science. His literary work “Research on Reconstruction of Education in
Sichuan Province Following the Great Wenchuan Earthquake Disaster of May 12, 2008” was publishedby Educational Science Publishing House in January 2011.