after the 2004 Aceh Tsunami: Preliminary Findings
3) Student Survey
Student questionnaire surveys were conducted at four of the fifteen schools; i.e.
SDN 7, 15, 48, and 65. These also include both SSB schools and non-SSB schools in the 2004 Aceh Tsunami inundated areas. Respondents are from the fourth, fifth and sixth grades. The total number of respondents is 114, including 65 male and 49 female students. Out of all the respondents, 44 respondents (38.5 percent) have lived in the current place since they were born. The questionnaire was composed of 19 questions including their backgrounds, perception toward natural disasters, the 2004 Aceh Tsunami, knowledge about disaster and preparedness.
Figure 2 shows the pupils‟ perception and knowledge about disaster and preparedness. More than 80 per cent of pupils answered that they learned about the 2004 tsunami. But when they were asked “what do you know about the impact of the 2004 tsunami in their community and nearby the school,” beyond answering yes or no,
Figure 2. Students‟ Responses on Disaster and Preparanders (Created by Sakurai)
less than 40 percent of pupils (n=44) could describe what actually occurred. Figure 2 also indicates that almost three fourths of pupils (n=68, 73%) believe that a tsunami as large as in 2004 will not occur again in their lifetime, and almost half of pupils (n=54, 48%) do not know what to do to be prepared against earthquake and tsunami.
4. Discussion
School disaster preparedness in Aceh has been promoted based on the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), which was adopted in January 2005, just after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. In the HFA, the third priority was set to “use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels.” Under Priority 3, promoting the inclusion of disaster risk reduction knowledge in relevant sections of school curricula at all levels and promoting the implementation of local risk assessment and disaster preparedness programmes in schools were emphasized (UNISDR, 2005).
Indeed it can be said that in Aceh, the curriculum on DRR has been developed and school disaster preparedness has been promoted by different external organizations as the whole education sector. However, the results of the study indicated that at the level of each school and individual pupil that further efforts are clearly required for creating a self-sustainable school disaster preparedness approach for building a culture of safety.
From the Japanese experience of enhancing school safety against disaster, disaster preparedness should be a part of daily life. The goal of disaster education should be defined as capacity building of each individual (Sakurai, 2016).
This because more than half of the public elementary schools are located at the 2004 Tsunami inundation areas and there are continuous risks of another earthquake and tsunami. From the interviews, it was found that the schools and headmasters were not aware that ensuring the continuation of disaster education was their responsibility.
Rather they perceived that tsunami evacuation drills were „costly‟. A “sense of dependency” on external actors to conduct evacuation drills and any disaster risk reduction activities were found among the schools. Some teachers felt scared to teach at the school since they knew about or directly experienced the 2004 Aceh Tsunami and could not felt secure and safe at the school. Due to personnel management, most of the time school headmasters and teachers who have been previously trained by the SSB program and have the “know-how” on school disaster preparedness have been
reassigned to other schools. Current institutional mechanism has no power to ensure trained teachers or headmasters to instantaneously disseminate the knowledge and skills they received from the training, at their own school. In some of the interviews where teachers or headmasters disseminate as such and bring their DRR knowledge to the subsequent school, mostly due to their own initiative. At the same time, the headmasters perceived the opportunity to ensure evacuation drill implementation on an annual basis through inclusion in the School Annual Plan, communication with School Committee, and endorsement and/or instruction from educational authority.
Current students at elementary schools are the post-disaster generation. They do not have the experiences of the actual 2004 Aceh Tsunami and cannot remember what happened in their community where they currently live, though many of them have heard about it from their families if they have been living there long. The results of the student survey indicate almost one-third of pupils could not take the possibility of the next tsunami as their own responsibility. Although 80 percent of pupils answered that they learned about the 2004 tsunami at school, half of them do not know what to be prepared for against earthquake and tsunami. It revealed that children‟s learning about the 2004 Tsunami should be more linked to preparedness for the next disaster. School and community collaboration should be promoted toward localizing the community‟s experiences and knowledge of the 2004 tsunami, as a previous study also emphasized (Oktari, et.al., 2015).
5. Conclusion
As further detailed analyses required, it is too early to make any conclusion in this paper. However, the preliminary analysis implies that school disaster preparedness among public elementary schools located in the 2004 Aceh Tsunami inundated areas in Banda Aceh City should be revitalized by internalizing preparedness activities in the School Annual Plan and to train headmasters and teachers to conduct preparedness efforts by themselves. It is crucial to identify minimum essentials of school preparedness for the school to continue by their own staff and budget. It is also important to get institutional support from Banda Aceh City Board of Education to put school headmasters in a position of primal responsible for school disaster preparedness.
The study also found that pupils should be more motivated to prepare for the next disaster when they learn about the 2004 Aceh Tsunami. Although the records of the 2004 Tsunami were not kept at the schools, there are the Aceh Tsunami Museum and many other tsunami remains existing in Banda Aceh City. It is important to utilize these potential learning facilities for the children‟s education in their local context.
In the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (UNISDR, 2015),
“increasing public education and awareness of disaster risk” in the post-disaster recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction phase is newly emphasized. Since school disaster preparedness in Aceh has been a precedent case in a post-disaster recovery process, continuous follow-up efforts should be made to make schools a center for creating a culture of safety against the next potential disaster. It is also recommended to promote collaboration with other tsunami affected areas, such as the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami to exchange experience, which could help avoiding the erosion of memories and experiences of the tsunami disaster.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to extend our appreciation to Dr. Khairul Munadi, Dr. Syamsidik, Dr.
Muzaillin Affan, Dr. Nizamuddin, M. Dr. Yoshiyuki Murayama, and Dr. Takeshi Sato to provide advises and support for the study. This study is funded by Grant from International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University and MEXT KAKENHI Grant (No.
26510008, Aiko Sakurai).
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