Education Ministry & CDEMA have collaborated to launch the Model Safe School Program in Dominica

​The Ministry of Education & Human Resource Development and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) have collaborated to launch & implement the Model Safe School Program in Dominica; at a ceremony held at the Garraway Hotel yesterday Monday March 19, 2018, in the presence of officials from the Ministry of Education and CDEMA.
 
Chief Education Officer Melena Fontaine stated that the program is aimed at enhancing various aspects of the Education sector’s operations. She explained that the program, “seeks to enhance our capacity to incorporate mainstream comprehensive risks and disaster management considerations in education sector policies, planning, and operations.”
 
She noted that the Ministry is presently working on numerous approaches intended to assist in preparations for natural disasters. She added that, “For the past three years the education sector, together with the other sectors, suffered tremendous loss from Tropical Storm Erika and Hurricane Maria”.
 
Fontaine went on to say that while the effects of a storm cannot be predicted, more steps can be taken to be better prepared. She stated further, that “The question is, could some of those losses have been minimized. It is a question that is not easily answered, because a lot depends on the severity of the event. However, experience has taught the world that there are actions that can be taken to mitigate and sometimes prevent the consequences of some of those events”.
 
She added that it is the responsibility of citizens to understand and implement those actions that can help us be better prepared to deal with the events that can create tremendous loss.
 
Fontaine added, “For us in the Education sector, it requires not only focusing on schools’ infrastructure, but also engaging our students from the Early Childhood Education level, to understand and embrace what it means to live in a climate resilient country. I am very happy therefore, for this launch, which begins one of the processes that will help us realize some of our goals in building a climate resilient country”.