Following the several fire incidents witnessed in our Kenya schools in the recent past, there is a great need to have regular fire drills in our learning institutions probably twice a year. Drills are a first and important step in keeping schools safe and secure. They are filled with teachable moments and they are as important to schools as reading, writing and arithmetic. The purpose of drills is to save lives and property. An Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is only as good as the ability of students, faculty and staff to execute it. Following the established plan requires a quick but careful assessment of the situation and practiced decisions as to the best course of action. When everyone at the school/campus regularly practices the plan, school personnel are more confident in making decisions to effectively and efficiently manage an emergency or major event. With good training and practice, everyone involved will be better able to react appropriately to emergency events. The safety and security of students and staff depends upon everyone knowing, to the extent possible, what to do when an actual incident occurs. Minutes or even seconds often can make a critical difference in saving lives. Conducting drills strengthens schools as learning organizations by empowering and creating a culture of preparedness. Drills allow administrators, staff and students to better prevent, mitigate, prepare for and recover from a variety of incidents.
Think back to when you were a kid in school. Did you have an idea of what to do in case any incident occurred? If you were trained on emergency related issues e.g First Aid, Fire Safety, Search and Rescue, Post Trauma Stress Management, Disaster Preparedness and Response, Water rescue etc, would that skill and knowledge acquired be crucial even today? Certainly Yes. The idea is that if such an incident were to happen, everyone would know what to do without thinking about it. They would just act. Why is it that once we get into the working world, it seems these drills go by the wayside? Whether you are just in an office building where you could be threatened by fire or terrorism, or a shop where there could be industrial accidents like chemical spills, why is it we don’t always think to conduct these same “worst case” scenario drills? It’s time to reinstate the emergency drill. But this will not be just any emergency drill. All businesses are different, and that means you will have specific needs that have to be met. Think about what needs to be met in your workplace in an emergency.
All schools should have health and safety guidelines and every student should be taken through the rules during orientation. Regular drills and sensitization on the potential hazards and incidents should be done to ensure that the students, teachers, staff and other stakeholders knows what to do incase of an emergency.
In addition to the fire and nature-related threats already mentioned, are there any specific threats that may impact your workplace/institution (i.e. radiation leaks, landslides, chemical spills, flooding, explosions from combustibles)? If there are, you need to train your personnel on how to deal with these situations were they to arise.
It is important to make sure your students and employees know where they need to go, and how to get there, to be safe in an emergency situation.
You should plan regular drills with your employees to make sure they know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it in case of an emergency. Having a School Safety and Security Training before the drill would be ideal before conducting the drill. The training can comprise a number of students, teachers and support staff. While you may not want to regularly close down all your operations for a drill, you can go department by department, and make the employees do a mock incident, and monitor their reactions, noting any mistakes they make in the process. While it may seem like an inconvenience, the more prepared your institution is for the worst the better chance you will be able to safely shut down operations and get everyone out alive and well if the worst were to happen.
Creating awareness though emergency drills and safety sensitization will be the key in disaster preparedness and mitigation and will create a culture of resilience. All people should have an idea of what to do in case there is an incident like fire, shooting, collapsed building, assault, road accident etc.
From my 12 years’ experience as a volunteer emergency responder, most of the people do not have an idea of what to do in case of an incident and they end up risking their lives, causing more harm to the casualties or worsening the situation. Action plans derived from drills allow schools to translate lessons learned and best practices into specific corrective steps and measures to continually improve the safety and security of schools. I recommend that emergency drills be made mandatory in all institutions.
There is also a need to have trained Community Emergency Response Teams(CERT) in every sub county to work with the safety stakeholders and the nyumba kumi leaders.
Conducting drills strengthens schools as learning organizations by empowering and creating a culture of preparedness.
Safety is both an individual and collective responsibility.
If you are not safety conscious you may become unconscious, lose life or properties. Safety starts with me, you, all of us.
