It is no secret to anyone that the political crisis in Lebanon and the region, which is reflected on citizens as a fragile security situation, worries the people, who have come to anticipate explosions and to prepare for them with whatever preventive \u201ccapacities\u201d are available to them. In the face of these \u201cshaky\u201d conditions, some educational institutions have raised their readiness in anticipation of any new emergency, especially in the areas targeted recently. In this framework, \u201cAl-Nahar\u201d sheds light on the crisis management plan that \u201cAl-Mabarrat Charitable Association\u201d has circulated to its 19 schools, in a conversation with the principal of Al-Kawthar High School Rana Ismail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The crisis management guide<\/strong> The pupils' responsibilities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In such cases the pupils are trained to \u201cstay calm and not become confused; not to run, so as to avoid colliding with the other pupils; not to use the lifts (in case of fire); to head for the gathering points through the exit routes and emergency exits they have previously been trained on; not to return to the site of the fire for any reason whatsoever once they have left it; to abide by the instructions of the teachers, the supervisors and the crisis management team; and to leave their bags in the classrooms, because the aim is their safety before everything else\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the occurrence of earthquakes, \u201cone must head for open, unroofed places, keep away from windows and objects liable to fall such as fans, get down under the table or desk while securing protection for the head, and not head for the lower floors\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Forced closure<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While Ismail focused on the importance that \u201ccommunication with the school should remain in place in cases of forced closure despite the tension, so as to lessen the shock for the pupils and thereby facilitate their re-engagement in the learning process\u201d, she pointed to \u201cthe necessity of adopting an \u2018emergency curriculum', as happened with the pupils of our schools in Hermel, where the forced closure extended for about two months as a result of the incidents. Points were identified close to the pupils' homes where the teaching materials were delivered and collected, or over the internet for those who had it at home. There is no doubt that turning the ordinary curriculum into a distance-learning curriculum is difficult, but it is certainly in the pupils' interest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The guide stipulates that \u201cin the month of September of every school year, the official of the communication cell verifies the existence of mobile telephone numbers for all the pupils; the institution likewise informs the parents by a written statement of the telephone numbers and the communication mechanisms in case of forced closure. During the closure period the subject coordinators draw up a programme for each subject specifying the day, the date, the name of the class, the name of the lesson and the tasks required of the pupil, and also specifying the parents' role in each task required of the pupil (\u2026)\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Psychological support<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ismail attaches importance to the work of the psychological support cell, whose tasks include easing tension and helping the pupils to relax in case an explosion occurs, as well as securing first aid for those whose nerves give way in such cases. She spoke about the experience of the bombing that targeted the Iranian embassy, which is not geographically far from Al-Kawthar High School, and said: \u201cWe kept the pupils in their classes normally and asked the teachers to carry out relaxation and psychological release activities; and when we learned that the army had opened the road and that the streets had become safe, we allowed the pupils to leave after we had isolated them from the atmosphere of external tension. We preferred not to put them at risk.\u201d She also spoke with bitterness about \u201cthe martyrdom of our pupil Malak Zahwi in the Haret Hreik bombing and the shock her departure left in the souls of her friends and her teachers, and the psychological support we offered to the pupils in general and to the pupils of her class in particular, to help them turn the energy of emotion, shock, anger and sorrow into a positive act or deed\u201d, noting her pride in her pupils and their reactions in the media, which flocked to them after Malak's martyrdom: \u201cNo bad reaction came from them, bearing in mind that we had said nothing to them in this respect and were all busy with her burial; but they were brought up in a sound climate far from congestion and rancour. We always work on adjusting ideas so as to adjust feelings, and we build a thinking that knows the way out of states of oppression and shock. The only enemy they know is Israel.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u0644\u0627 \u064a\u062e\u0641\u0649 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0623\u062d\u062f \u0623\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0632\u0645\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u064a\u0627\u0633\u064a\u0629 \u0641\u064a \u0644\u0628\u0646\u0627\u0646 \u0648\u0627\u0644\u0645\u0646\u0637\u0642\u0629\u060c \u0627\u0644\u062a\u064a \u062a\u0646\u0639\u0643\u0633 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0648\u0627\u0637\u0646\u064a\u0646 \u0648\u0636\u0639\u0627\u064b \u0623\u0645\u0646\u064a\u0627\u064b \u0647\u0634\u0627\u064b\u060c \u062a\u0642\u0644\u0642 \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0647\u0627\u0644\u064a \u0627\u0644\u0630\u064a\u0646 \u0628\u0627\u062a\u0648\u0627 \u064a\u062a\u0631\u0642\u0628\u0648\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u0627\u0646\u0641\u062c\u0627\u0631\u0627\u062a \u0648\u064a\u0633\u062a\u0639\u062f\u0648\u0646 \u0644\u0647\u0627 \u0628\u0645\u0627 \u062a\u0648\u0627\u0641\u0631 \u0644\u062f\u064a\u0647\u0645 \u0645\u0646 “\u0642\u062f\u0631\u0627\u062a”…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[249],"tags":[247],"class_list":["post-5813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gm-news","tag-247"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newpub.mabarrat.org.lb\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newpub.mabarrat.org.lb\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newpub.mabarrat.org.lb\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newpub.mabarrat.org.lb\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newpub.mabarrat.org.lb\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newpub.mabarrat.org.lb\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newpub.mabarrat.org.lb\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newpub.mabarrat.org.lb\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newpub.mabarrat.org.lb\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newpub.mabarrat.org.lb\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cThe thought of issuing a guide specific to crisis management began after the experience of July 2006\u201d, Ismail affirms, noting that \u201cthere are several cases of emergency, such as the outbreak of a fire or the occurrence of an earthquake (which is what some of our schools in the south were exposed to), or wars and security incidents that require evacuating the school and sometimes require a forced closure. Therefore the guide was divided into two headings: the first is evacuating the buildings and the institution's grounds, and the second is dealing with forced closure.\u201d
Ismail spoke about \u201ca crisis management team composed of a set of cells: the internal and external communication cell, the financial resources cell, the information technology cell, the human evacuation cell, the general safety cell (electricity, water, firefighting, services\u2026), the first aid cell, the support and provisions cell, the security cell and the archive cell\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The evacuation process<\/strong>
The guide contains details about preparing the infrastructure for the evacuation process as follows: identifying halls and safe points for gathering the pupils and the staff; identifying the corridors and stairs that must be used; placing guidance signs that determine the direction of movement; securing independent lighting; securing first aid kits and placing them in some of the supervisors' offices; and securing loudspeakers, hand-held extinguishers and stretchers. Ismail pointed to \u201ca field exercise we carried out in cooperation with the civil defence, the Islamic Health Authority and a firefighting team; and we shall carry out another exercise that we shall not announce in advance as we did with the first\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n