Earthquake Preparedness Skills among Pupils of Talaga Elementary School

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Last April 2017, the town of Mabini where Talaga Elementary School (TES) is located, was shaken by an earthquake averaging to magnitude 6. The occurrence of earthquakes and their aftershocks, which worried the school community and the public as well, awakened the minds of every individual especially the pupils to be more alert and be prepared. At TES, three classrooms of Grade Four classes are located at the second floor of a two–story building. It was built and completed in 1961. Today, the building itself needs repair. Some said that it should be demolished. Thus, the researchers aimed to assess the preparedness skills on the occurrence of an earthquake among Grade-Four pupils of Talaga Elementary School.

METHODS

This paper utilized the descriptive method approach of research which used questionnaires as a main tool for gathering data that identified the best practices of the pupils before, during and after the occurrence of an earthquake. The frequency of pupils' response and percentage rating were utilized to determine their level of preparedness. The data was then presented, analyzed, and interpreted in order to find out the result.

RESULTS

Grade-Four pupils who were respondents of this study has low level of awareness during earthquake occurrence, thus result suggests that a proposed localized earthquake readiness guidelines be crafted for information and dissemination.

DISCUSSIONS

The output of this research will inform pupils as well as their teachers on the important things and practices that they should remember and apply before, during, and after an earthquake occurrence while in school. This was based on the researcher-made questionnaire utilized to the pupil-respondents. Different difficulties that may be encountered during an earthquake based on the school location were also considered. With this, Talaga Elementary School imposes and implements activities or safety tips on how to deal with the disasters especially during the occurrence of earthquake that will come up unexpectedly. Stakeholders of the school work hand in hand to orient pupils and to build and develop disaster awareness and preparedness among themselves.