Human Resource Development Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao on Wednesday launched a School Safety Curriculum, an initiative to integrate safety and protection of children in the daily school programmes.
“The effort stands as the first of its kind in India to fulfil the norms of the National Disaster Management Authority’s school safety guidelines. It will make AP schools safe and protected. The government is committed to child protection and it is the right of the children to have a safe learning environment,” he said.
Commissioner of School Education K. Sandhya Rani said the effort would be to reach out to every school in the government and private sectors.
Massive effort
She said the curriculum comprised 29 chapters on natural, human-made and every-day risks. “It took us two years to evolve this curriculum in collaboration with the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) State resource group, designed for 69 lakh children in 61,705 schools in the State,” she said, adding that the new chapters would help schools build a culture of preparedness and life-saving skills that will have universal applicability.
The curriculum would be integrated from class III to X and will be available for students from 2018-19 in the Telugu language.
Thomas Chandy, CEO, Save the Children, India, which extended technical support to the project, said integrating these key aspects in school curriculum would help children imbibe them early in life. Former vice-chairman of the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority and first Relief Commissioner of India Anil K. Sinha complimented the curriculum designers for incorporating finer details.
‘Investing in future’
Member, United Nations ISDR and Vice-Chairman, Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority, V.K. Sharma said investing in children was investing in future. He said building safety awareness among children was key.
Founding Member of Sphere India N.M. Prusty said the programme could be replicated in other States too.
General Manager of Save the Children for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States Vikas Gora said the SCERT partnership with Save the Children would built a generation of resilient children.
SCERT Director M. Venkata Krishna, officials and staff of various departments and schoolchildren participated in the event.
