NEMA seeks disaster management in school curriculum

The National Emergency Management Agency on Thursday advocated the need to make disaster risk education an integral part of the national school curriculum so as to help in building awareness on disaster management in children.
Speaking in Minna, Nigeri State at a workshop on Children and Emergencies, Risk Reduction and Mitigation and Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis, Measles, Cholera and Lassa Fever for Students and Teachers in Niger State, the Zonal Coordinator, NEMA, Abuja, Ishaya Isah Chonoko, said that this has become necessary because learning about disaster risk in schools will help students and teachers play an important role in saving lives and protect members of the community in times of disasters.
According to Chonoko: “The objective of the workshop is to among other things inculcate disaster risk awareness among school children, promote integrating of disaster risk reduction in school curriculum and to help understand the threats of measles, cholera and
“This workshop is coming at the right time because it is geared towards a preparedness measure following this year’s rainfall prediction by NIMET. Niger state is identified to be among the states to be likely affected by flood.
“Children can easily reach their peer groups more than the elderly in the society. We need to take this year’s warnings by NIMET seriously because epidemics and diseases which are aftermath of flooding still count for more deaths than any other natural disaster in the country.
“We are here in respect to NIMET’s prediction and we do not want to be caught unaware. We need to inform the children of the consequences of the aftermath effect. We know children are vulnerable to such risk.”