How many fewer victims we would have had if the social environment of Armenia had been ready to withstand the earthquake? There is no distinct answer to this question yet. But
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today we are facing a problem of having a well-informed society to withstand disaster; to achieve this, it is required to implement projects aimed at reducing the disaster risks starting even from pre-school institutions. Here the role of teachers is extremely significant.
The conference headed “Teaching to Reduce Disaster Risks at Schools and at Pre-school Establishments; including the DRR concepts and principles into the ASPU curriculum” was held at the educational unit of the Pedagogical University in Aghavnadzor. The conference was organized within the framework of the project “Support to Disaster Risk Reduction in the area of vulnerable communities and establishments in the Southern Caucasus” which was financed by the European Union; the conference was held by the UN Children Foundation.
¬¬The conference was launched with the welcoming speech of the Pedagogical University Vice Chancellor of Staff and International Cooperation Mr. Ara Yeremyan. He introduced the importance for the pedagogical education to adopt the project on reducing the disasters risks in the context that around 110 types of disasters are typical for 29000sq/km area of Armenia.
In his turn the Head of the Department of Development Projects and Monitoring from the MES Mr. Robert Stepanyan also greeted the participants of the conference and noticed that a lot had been done during the recent years, but there is still a lot more to do. The Deputy Director of the RA MES RS Mr. Nikolay Grigoryan emphasized the fact that today is a historical day when the steps aimed at reducing the disaster risks form a complete chain of kindergarten-school-university- workplace.
Further on the Dean of the RA MES State Academy of Crisis Management Faculty of Training Mr. Roudik Alaverdyan spoke about the educational system of reducing disaster risks and the existing problems.
“We have a problem of learning lessons from the disaster of 88; reduction of disaster risks must begin from the earliest age. We need to create a “disaster-withstanding teacher”,” the UN Children foundation DRR project leader Tigran Tovmasyan noticed. He explained in details the process of teaching disaster risks reduction at schools and at pre-school educational establishments in our days and highlighted the idea of including the DRR concepts and principles in the ASPU curriculum.
Afterwards, the Head of the Department of Postgraduate Education and Professional Qualifications of the Pedagogical University Ms. Naira Hakobyan delivered her report on the
process of “formation of the DRR educational culture in the educational system of universities”. And the ASPU Head of Department of Ecology and Sustainable Development Ms. Karinei Danielyan spoke about the modern problems of ecological security on global and national level.
Later, the Head of the Department of Theory and History of Psychology Mr. Mels Mkrtumyan presented the content psychological requirements of teaching DRR on the example of the Culturology specialization.
The Head of the Department of Theory and History of Pedagogy Ms. Laura Asatryan assessed the problem of formation of a person’s DRR culture in the context of sustainable development.
Next in turn, the Head of the Department of First Medical Aid, Emergency Situations and Civil Protection Mr. Hakob Grigoryan discussed the medical-pedagogical measures of prevention of disaster risks and reducing the effects. While the Dean of the Faculty of Primary Education Ms. Heghinei Khachatryan made a report about the integrated thematic units and student-centered teaching of DRR.
During the conference other interesting and meaningful reports were also delivered which were followed by exciting discussions. “If, God bless us, but an earthquake happens again in our region in about 40 years’ time, the result of today’s work will be seen then –whether we’ve been able to achieve any success or not,” the UN Children Foundation DRR project leader Tigran Tovmasyan mentioned.
