Lucknow school teachers learn how to deal with fires, disasters

Lucknow, Oct 17 (IANS) With Diwali around the corner school teachers are being taught how to deal with fires and other disasters.

This is part of a disaster management technique teaching project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched here Friday.

'Training of disaster management to the school teachers becomes necessary to deal with incidents of fire, building collapse, earthquakes and accidents,' project officer with UNDP Kumar Deepak said.

Small kids are the worst sufferers in accidents. In December 1995, hundreds of school children were killed when they were caught in a fire during a prize distribution ceremony. Similarly, over 80 children were charred to death when a major fire raged in their school in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district in 2004, he said.

'Taking such incidents into account, now it is high time to train teachers who can minimise the level of casualty in such mishaps,' reasoned Deepak.

In the first phase of the two-day training session, nearly 60 schools of Lucknow are involved. Later, the same training will be conducted for teachers across the state.

'The teachers after getting trained, will train their colleagues and students through mock drills to be held in November and December,' he said.