Keeping schools safe in earthquakes

This report is the product of an ad hoc experts’ meeting held at the OECD in Paris from 9 to 11 February 2004 on earthquake safety in schools.

The expert knowledge, opinions and experiences presented in this report provide valuable insight into the nature and scope of the problems involved in protecting school buildings and their occupants. Importantly, these accounts also give hope that the seismic risk of schools can be lowered to prevent further injury and death during earthquakes.

Acording to the paper in many earthquake-prone countries, a surprisingly high number of school buildings
are not constructed to withstand the most moderate of earthquakes. Furthermore the paper found that common, inter-related and in most cases avoidable obstacles were encountered by experts from Algeria, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Turkey, Venezuela and the United States: from lack of awareness of the threat of school collapse and poor communication between the scientific, public and government communities; to basic deficiencies in the nature, implementation and enforcement of laws and regulations concerning planning, maintenance and construction of schools buildings.

In order to begin to improve earthquake safety in schools the paper outlines a number of safety principles for schools which were established by the group of experts:

• need for “champions” of seismic safety, who can promote a risk-averse society and effectively communicate the risks involved in earthquakes to all stakeholder
• acknowledgement of the important role of school buildings within the community as post-disaster shelters 
• establishment of a system for assigning risk ownership and a legal or regulatory basis for action, which contains clear lines of accountability and achievable performance goals with an incremental implementation strategy 
• clear understanding of financial responsibility and cost 
• availability of detailed and up-to-date hazard maps and building codes, which are implemented by strong and stable institutions 
• establishment of a well-monitored process for quality control, with certified design professionals, independent plan review, checking and approval, independent inspection and testing and final reporting.