NDMA Chairman Highlights Importance Of 'School Safety Guidelines'

Sumaira FH Published August 18, 2016 | 11:07 PM

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th August, 2016) : Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Maj General Asghar Nawaz Thursday highlighted the importance of 'School Safety Guidelines,' which would be introduced in few selected schools under a pilot project. The project would help children protecting themselves in any emergency-like situation, he said while addressing the participants of a two-day seminar, jointly organized by NDMA and UNICEF. He said the authority was making utmost efforts to familiar the school children about safety measures required in any extraordinary situation. He said that schools safety involved a conscious, systematized efforts to asses risks from potential natural hazards such as earthquake, floods, landslides, heat waves and man-made tragedies such as firing, bomb threat, hostage situation, terrorist attack building collapse and toxic hazards and counter them.

He said it involved planning and preparing to prevent children and teachers from any threat with effective respond and precaution. He said as a pilot project the 'Schools Safety Guidelines' will be introduced in few schools and after its success the program will be extended to other educational institutions. He said Pakistan was the first country among the SAARC countries to introduce this program. Representatives from Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA, Azad Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, key donors development partners, education sector participated in the seminar.