Flood disasters lead to children’s poor academic performance, Research shows

A research article published in Journal of Disaster Risk Studies has shown the flood disasters leading to children’s poor academic performance in Muzarabani District of Zimbabwe.

The natural disaster research has indicated that flood disasters cause loss of learning hours, loss of qualified personnel, outbreak of waterborne diseases, high absenteeism and low syllabus coverage leading to children’s poor academic performance. 

The article has provided an overview of flood disasters and their potential effects on children’s access to quality education in Zimbabwe using both qualitative and quantitative data. The article has analyzed school children’s specific vulnerabilities to flood disasters that need to be taken into account in policy development. There is need to integrate disaster risk reduction into the education curriculum and children need to be taught how to prepare, mitigate, prevent, respond to and recover from flood disasters, the article says.

Related Post: Floods in Zimbabwe claim lives of three children 

The research article has recommended that a culture of safety be promoted through disaster education, development of good road networks and enforcement of building codes during construction of school infrastructure.  The researchers hope that the research will help the education system in disaster-prone areas of Zimbabwe will be enhanced in order for children to have equal access to quality education.

Earlier, a study by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) published in the journal Science had shown that education making people less vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods, landslides, and storms that are expected to intensify with climate change. The result was based on the analysis of natural disaster data for 167 countries over the past four decades.

Journal Reference:
Mudavanhu, Chipo (2014). The impact of flood disasters on child education in Muzarabani District, Zimbabwe. Journal of Disaster Risk Studies 6(1)

Original post: Natural Disasters List December 18, 2014

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