Extent Of Implementation of School-Based Disaster Risk Reduction Management (SBDRRM) Program in Elementary Schools in Northern Conner District

Educational institutions play a vital role in ensuring safety and resilience against disasters, making the evaluation of their preparedness programs essential. This study assessed the extent of implementation of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management of the elementary schools in Northern Conner District during the School Year 2022-2023. The descriptive method of research was used for the study with the survey questionnaire as the main tool to gather data from the two groups of respondents, the big and small schools. The questionnaires were patterned from the study "Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan of Selected Public Schools in Marikina City" by Mark R. Escobar. The study involved 90 SBDRRM teams of elementary schools in the Northern Conner District. The statistical tools used to treat the data were weighted mean, t-test, and ranking. The salient findings of the study are both big and small schools assessed the implementation of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management with an average weighted mean of 2.77 respectively which was verbally interpreted as a high extent. Results revealed that there is no significant difference in schools' extent of implementation of the SBDRRM program when schools are grouped according to the population. There is no significant difference in schools' extent of implementation of SBDRRRM along the four components. The top five most prevalent challenges and problems met by the respondents are as follows: first, lack of teachers' training for DRRM; second, unclear funding source to sustain DRRM plans, programs, and activities; third, unavailability of resources to implement DRRM plans, programs, and activities; fourth, lack of understanding of the DRRM plan, concept, implementation, importance and experience and fifth, unclear roles of the members. From the findings of the study, the following conclusion was drawn: The SBDRRM Program of the elementary schools of the Northern District of Conner was assessed with a high extent of implementation. However, there is a need for enhancement of the SDRRM Program by capacitating its members with relevant training related to DRRM and fostering linkages and membership to DRRM-related and recognized organizations and patients. These predictors, however, need further work to validate reliability.