Why are the Guidance Notes on Safer School Construction important?
At a time when the frequency and magnitude of extreme climatic events is rising, a growing number of the world’s school-going children are increasingly exposed to earthquakes, wildfires, floods, cyclones, landslides and other natural hazards. Indeed, although children spend up to 50 percent of their waking hours in school facilities, all too often schools are not constructed or maintained to be disaster resilient, as these figures demonstrate: • Chinese earthquake (2008): More than 7,000 children were killed in their schools and an estimated 7,000 classrooms were destroyed. • The cyclone in Bangladesh (2007) destroyed 496 school buildings and damaged 2,110 more. • The Super Typhoon Durian in the Philippines caused $20m USD damage to school, including 90-100% of school buildings in three cities and 50-60% of school buildings in two other cities. • The earthquake in Pakistan (2005) killed at least 17,000 students in schools and seriously injured another 50,000, leaving many disabled and
