Bulaksumur – In disasters, children are the vulnerable group who are the first and most affected than adults. They cannot save themselves, so chances to become victims are greater. In fact, in an emergency situation, children’s rights are often overlooked, one of which is the right for education.
This was delivered by an Educational Consultant, Esti Fariah, M.Si, in the discussion entitled ‘Merapi Post-eruption Education Sustainability’, at the UGM Center for Rural and the Regions Studies (PSPK), lately. Esti explained when such disasters, for example the Merapi eruption, occurred, various educational facilities were damaged, some schools were destroyed.
"Yet there are some building still standing, but they cannot function properly as they are covered by volcanic ash. Some of the schools were turned into refugee camps," said the alumni of UGM graduate school in educational sociology.
In fact, learners are individuals who have access to quality and relevant educational opportunities. Therefore, they need to get a learning environment that is safe and that encourages the protection and welfare of mental and emotion. For that reason, even in a state of emergency, conducive educational facilities are still needed. Related to that, disaster management needs to thoroughly involve various groups. "Along with the available resources, it is expected that the society would participate in creating conducive atmosphere for the education of children during and after disasters to provide an education package in the emergency situation," she explained.
Various parties, either government, private, community or others can do so by re-opening the school that is closed due to disaster and re-activating teaching and learning activities. These include the provision of temporary learning place or school facilities that are damaged and destroyed.
In addition, it needs integrating the disaster response material into school subject in order to provide understanding to the students about disaster response. "Most importantly, it is to create communal action plans to anticipate and ensure that educational process remains sustainable," he said.
In emergency response situation, it focuses more on classroom management with a modified method in a proper manner based on context of disaster. One of those is recruiting teaching staff that have insight into post-disaster education as well as competence in presenting material in an emergency atmosphere. Another important point is the ability to manage the administration of education field related with the learning plan.