Safeguarding Schools

Yet so-called “modern” schools in developing countries are often highly vulnerable to earthquakes. The town of Spitak, Armenia, lost a generation of its children in the 1988 earthquake, when recently constructed school buildings collapsed. In earthquakes that struck the Kurile Islands in 1994, Sakhalin in 1995, and Venezuela in 1997, more modern school buildings collapsed than did older, traditionally built structures. Because the Venezuelan earthquake occurred while school was in session, most of the fatalities were children. In the October 2005 Pakistan earthquake, 20,000 children died and an equal number were seriously injured because of the collapse of schools. In the May 2008 Sichuan, China earthquake, another 20,000 children died from schools collapsing.

Programs that address school safety can be particularly effective. School earthquake safety programs reach teachers, who will pass on their knowledge to future generations of students. Students inform their parents, who in turn can apply their new knowledge to improve safety in their home and workplace. School design and construction are easier to regulate than the design and construction of other types of structures, because schools are governmental responsibilities. Proposals to make schools earthquake safe are politically attractive and therefore more likely to be funded. Finally, programs aimed at schools are cost effective, because school-age children comprise a significant percentage of their country’s current population.