Encourage a culture of safety

There is a need to build more effective systems of safety in public and private schools around the UAE. However, in order to do so, it is essential that we nominate and deploy staff, whose sole responsibility is to manage affairs involving risks and to prevent potential crises. The main aim with such a system is to protect all students from danger.

The most important role for representatives of school safety to pursue is not just as arrangers and installers of signs for emergency exits, or planners and facilitators of evacuations for simulated disasters, but rather as role models for a culture of safety. This is true, especially in schools, where so many young people have little or no awareness of possible risks.

Our children are priceless, and protecting them from danger is vital. Therefore, establishing sufficient safety systems in every school is required. There is no point in investing money to improve schools without considering the aspect of safety. With that said, school systems can spare no expense in the pursuit of excellence in teaching and learning, but can in an instant lose a child due to drawbacks related to safety. Thus, academic excellence is eclipsed by the dark cloud of institutional irresponsibility in safeguarding the children.

At their best, school safety strategies and systems will seek to form partnerships with police, ambulance, and civil defence. Within each school, it is imperative to attain a high level of awareness, and to teach the students about safety as not only will it help them and their classmates, but also their families at home and the communities they live in.

With that in mind, systematic means of managing risk and danger in schools must be planned, well organised and submitted to monitoring for accountability by educational authorities as well as civil authorities.

— The reader is an Emirati educator based in Al Ain