Schools are an important symbol of a country’s educational and national prestige, they are not only a learning environment for children but also serve as a community hub and shelter during emergencies. Both children and school staffs deserve a safe and secure learning environment. The lack of awareness among developers about seismic risk and the potential of severe earthquake in the past, requires a skeptical performance evaluation of existing buildings to find out the capacity of the existing buildings against seismic demand. Various experts of Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) provided a comprehensive review of techniques and retrofit design of existing masonry and concrete buildings in the past, facilitated to increase the capacity of vulnerable schools buildings. The primary objective was to bring to attention effective techniques practiced worldwide in the field of structural health assessment and rehabilitation of damaged buildings. The report provided useful guidelines and recommendations for formulating a rehabilitation strategy and choice of retrofitting methods. The 2015 earthquake in Nepal revealed the vulnerability of school buildings and how it endangers the lives of children and teaching staffs. It disrupts their education and in the long resulting in socio-economic loss for the country. Most of the school buildings in affected areas like Gorkha, Sindhupalchowk, Dolakha, Nuwakot and part of Kathmandu valley suffered significant damage, rendering them unfit to use. The data shows an estimated 870,000 children will be unable to return to schools, according to the Education Cluster (the coordinating body for humanitarian education activities), comprising UN agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other stakeholders (USAID fact sheet 16). The damage in some of the school buildings was so severe that it may have killed and injured students, if they had been in schools during the earthquake. Such challenges can be minimized and avoided, if appropriate construction methods are used in the initial planning and construction phase. The responsibility of the management bodies is to make school safe for both students and the public since schools are an important structure in the community often serving as shelter during crisis, making it imperative they provide the security needed. In 2010, Ministry of Education incorporated the school building seismic retrofitting program in the annual national plan and program with adequate budget for seismic retrofitting of 15 school buildings starting from the fiscal year 2011/2012. The concept was jointly formed by the government, ADB and NSET for reducing seismic vulnerability of school buildings in Kathmandu Valley. About 200 school buildings have been retrofitted since led by the government inside Kathmandu valley and an overall of 300 throughout the country. NSET served as national consultant for providing technical assistance to Department of Education (DoE). The aim of this report is to highlight the benefits of retrofitting school buildings and the urgency of retrofitting in existing school buildings to prevent loss of lives and ensure the continuity of education post-disaster.
Details
| Title | Making Schools Safer for Earthquakes Effectiveness of Retrofitting: Case Studies from Nepal |
| Pages | 35 |
| Language | English |
| Format | |
| Size | 12 MB |
| Download Method | Direct Download |
| Download Links | BECOME A MEMBER VIEW DOWNLOAD LINKS |
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