Abstract:

The increased frequency of disastrous earthquakes globally has prioritized the need for schools’ preparedness. As knowledge about seismic events has improved over the decades, the task of engaging governments, communities and staff to reduce risk and vulnerability of the schools has made variable progress. Worldwide States have strategies for school preparedness and consider the most effective ways to encourage, facilitate and assess progress made towards seismic safety goals.

Greece is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. Although only a small number of the earthquakes are big enough to cause damage, the risk is real. Protecting students and teachers from earthquakes is one of the first priorities of State. The national legislation requires schools to set up written emergency plans for a range of natural disasters, including earthquakes. The earthquake plan provides an overview of the school’s preparedness and response strategies, describes expected hazards, outlines roles and responsibilities, and explains how the school keeps the plan current.

Acknowledging the importance of improving seismic safety in schools, Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization (EPPO), which is a national organization, implements a School Earthquake Safety Initiative. This Initiative aims to make Primary and Secondary Schools safer and also reach communities with the message of earthquake safety promotion. To achieve this aim, the EPPO program has the following principal objectives: to raise awareness of Schools’ Directors, to help them to develop and evaluate earthquake plan and to teach staff the ways to aware their students about seismic risk.

This study presents the results of a survey that detects the level of earthquake preparedness of schools in all over the country and aims to assess the contribution of EPPO’s Initiative to the improvement of level of school preparedness. A structured, closed-form anonymous questionnaire was developed including questions concerning the teachers’ knowledge of self-protection actions in case of earthquake and the existence of emergency planning at workplace. This questionnaire was answered by Schools’ Directors and teachers from all the Regions of the country, during 7 school periods (from 2012-2013 to 2018-2019).

The results of the survey indicate that the actions of EPPO, such as the implementation of training seminars and the development of a specific Handbook on School’s Earthquake Planning, have decisively contributed to acquire skills, to improve the schools earthquake preparedness and to foster a culture of safety.
Moreover, this survey presents the EPPO educational activities targeted to the school community of Ionian Islands Region that implemented in the framework of Telemachus” Project. This project is funded under the Priority Axis "Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development" of Operational Plan "Ionian Islands 2014-2020".

Undoubtedly, the training of teachers, the awareness of students and the development of standardized School Plan help the school community to coordinate emergency responses and to foster decision - making skills in actual emergencies.

The fact that EPPO and local authorities are supporting a wide range of earthquake safety-related initiatives is encouraging and a foundational step to ensure the effective management in case of emergency at school units.

Keywords:

Education on earthquake issues, emergency planning, Ionian Islands Region of Greece, preparedness, schools, teachers.