By Patience Gbeze
Accra, Oct. 21, GNA – About 40 teachers from selected second cycle schools in the Greater Accra region are undergoing a three-day training on Prevention, Response and Resilience to Natural Hazards, and Emergencies in Accra.
The training is to equip them on the subject matter and to enable them to impart the knowledge to their students.
It is also aimed at mainstreaming Disaster Risks Reduction (DRR) into School Curricular.
The training is being organised by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) with funding from the ECOWAS Commission.
The training formed part of the Commission’s effort to build resilient population in disaster management and reduction.
Nana Eric Agyemang-Prempeh, the Director-General of NADMO, in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Daniel Kwaku Danteh, Deputy Director-General in Charge of General Services, said hazards could not be totally avoided but how to reduce the impacts and build back better was what make people resilient.
He said such platforms would enable citizens and policymakers to properly shape policies and resource allocation to meet disaster management needs, capacity requirements and disaster risk knowledge gaps and, thereby, increasing the total community and country resilience to disasters.
He announced that climate change had already been introduced in the National Curriculum for Basic One to Basic Six pupils.
“Disaster Risk Reduction is now being offered as a course in most of our tertiary institutions. There are also discussions ongoing to incorporate Disaster Risk Reduction into the National Curriculum at all levels.”
Nana Agyemang-Prempeh said: ”Children as they say are the future. It is, therefore, crucial that we lay the necessary foundation for them by exposing them to the contents of Disaster Risk Reduction so that we will have a resilient population in the years ahead.”
He, therefore, expressed the hope that after the three days training, the teachers would get an understanding of the basic concepts of DRR and be better prepared to teach all important subjects in their respective schools.
Ambassador Baba Gana Wakil, the Resident Representatives of ECOWAS in Ghana, said regrettably from all indications, the magnitude of vulnerability and exposure to hazards and other forms of disasters was expected to continue to rise in the sub region over the next decade.
He said floods and droughts remained the most severe disaster in West Africa.
To mitigate these disasters, the EC in collaboration with its partners had developed a Regional Action Plan aimed at strengthening the capacity of member states.
Ambassador WAKIL said the training would also create the opportunity for stakeholders to find ways to reduce disasters in schools for social cohesion as well as training people to build disaster resilience communities in Ghana.
Madam Adiza Tassa, the Director of Education, Ayawaao East, lauded the organisers for their vision, adding that if anything at all, COVID-19 had thought a lot as a country.
She emphasised the need for the country to prepare well so that it would not be taken unawares.
She said using teachers to start disaster risks reduction was in the right direction and urged them to back and cascade the knowledge acquired.
GNA