Description
write a paper that addresses the following:
- Why are the areas you identified a priority?
- Why should the areas you identified be addressed?
- How will you, as the educational leader, address these deficiencies?
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Explanation & Answer
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Running head: ADDRESSING DEFICIENCIES
School Safety and Caring Learning Environments
Name
Institution
Instructor
Date
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ADDRESSING DEFICIENCIES
2
School Safety and Caring Learning Environments
Overview
Millions of children attend schools all over the world around six days of the week on
average; school safety is therefore a major concern for all institutions and to a large extent the
respective countries. Majority of the schools in the West and largely countries in the developed
world are considered safe and caring environments. However, in developing nations this is not
the case, hazards are rife and the institutions may not be able to do a good job of keeping the
students safe. Some of the major concerns when it comes to safety can be man-made causes such
as terrorism, fire, burglary, kidnapping and many more. On the other hand, natural catastrophes
also abound more especially with the current climatic changes which have been triggered by
global warming, scientist continue to caution us on the severity and prevalence of such events.
Cases of extreme weather conditions promise to be the order of the day, typhoons,
hurricanes, heat waves, rise in sea levels affecting the communities and institutions that are
located around the coastal regions are just some of the challenges that will be faced. Institutions
that cannot offer protection from such hazards should not be allowed to run unless they have
measures in place to do so. Much concern should however not be with the natural disasters, but
more to do with the controllable ones like fires, kidnapping and so on. There are documented
cases of students being burnt alive where their dormitories were shut as way of protecting them
but no measures had been put in place for emergency evacuation and control of the fires. In other
areas, civil strife and wars and threat of gangs that would with the slightest chance move in and
kidnap students like in the case of the Chibok Girls kidnapping in Borno State, Nigeria by the
Boko Haram insurgents (A.P, 2014).
ADDRESSING DEFICIENCIES
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Studies done by the UN have shown that children worldwide have been exposed to risk
of violence within and also outside the school walls. These threats range from rape, sexual abuse
and harassment, beatings, verbal abuse, bullying, stereotyping and many other forms of
humiliating acts (UNICEF, 2006). In some areas schools have failed to protect children from
exposure to health hazards such as pollutants, noise, fumes and other toxic substances or even
allow them to be exposed to unhygienic environments. Within the country school going children
have been exposed to a number of disasters and hazards, there is the case of Sandy Hook
Elementary School shootout that affected 27 people, 20 of which were young kids between the
ages of six and seven; another tragedy has been school fires like the flash fire incident in GenoaKingston High School in Dekalb County, Illinois where seven students were affected with one
being critically injured (West et al, 2003). An example of a natural tragedy example is like
hurricane Katrina that affected learning and displaced many in New Orleans and many other
places.
Chosen areas that require attention
The school environment can broadly be looked at by focusing on the facilities that the
institution has, the classrooms, the support systems such as the school-based health supports, the
policies that have been put in place in relation to discipline and other practices. When all this
factors are set right they guide the external environment of the school. A good learning
environment is one that has enough facilities commensurate to the student population; they
should have support systems in place in regard to health concerns; should have a clear and well
defined policy on discipline and the also the classrooms ought to be well managed. When all
these tenets of a healthy learning environment are in place, evidence of good and functioning
environment will be seen in the academic, discipline and physical well-being of the students.
ADDRESSING DEFICIENCIES
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Building interior
The areas that identified that scored the least in the exercise and are such a priority
include; the building interior, monitoring and surveillance, the emergency operation plans and
the school climate and culture. In the building interior there were a number of areas that scored
low during the exercise and may b...