Education ministry developing disaster plan for St Kitts-Nevis

The Ministry of Education in St Kitts and Nevis is teaming up with a number of national and international agencies to develop a comprehensive plan for school safety in the event of sudden disasters

The plans will cover both man-made and natural emergencies.

Tricia Esdaille, acting chief education officer, said a training session was held for teachers earlier this year on critical techniques relating to effective school safety plan.

This included how to formulate, evacuation plans in the event of an emergency, and how to perform and execute drills using the details of these plans.

While appearing on this week’s edition of the government radio and television programme Working for You, Esdaille said the ministry is partnering with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Royal St Christopher and Nevis Police Force, the St Kitts-Nevis Fire and Rescue Services, the St Kitts-Nevis Red Cross Society, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on the project.

“All of this comes together to help part of the larger national work of developing a National School Safety Policy, which guides the framework for how schools function, and how they develop their plans and execute them,” Esdaille said.

Additional training sessions will be staged for teachers in the covering the previous areas, and new segments will also be added to include basic first aid and the like.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, William Hodge, said school safety is of paramount importance to ministry officials and all will be done to ensure that this is addressed at all levels.