St JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — Caribbean education ministers have ended a meeting approving a declaration and road map on school safety and hoping to build stronger collaborations with the private sector, non-government organisations as well as other regional and international entities.

The Caribbean Ministerial Forum which took place in Antigua was aimed at promoting and raising public awareness on the three pillars of School Safety of the Comprehensive School Safety (CSS) Framework, which guides the Worldwide Initiative for Safe Schools (WISS).

The two-day forum also identified national and joint regional achievements and priorities for School Safety in the Caribbean.

Prior to the meeting, the organisers had said recognising that a quality education is the foundation for improving people’s lives and sustainable development, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015 by the 193 countries represented in the United Nations General Assembly, reflects the commitment to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” as Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.

Goal 4 aligns with Priority 3 of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience, which aims “to promote the resilience of new and existing critical infrastructure, including water, transportation and telecommunications infrastructure, educational facilities, hospitals and other health facilities, to ensure that they remain safe, effective and operational during and after disasters in order to provide live-saving and essential services”.

The organisers said that while the road map on school safety is expected to be implemented within the next two weeks containing only regional priorities and activities, there will be a request for countries to identify and share priority areas and national actions within a two month period.

In addition, the road map is expected to contain an annex which provides a catalogue of possible national actions.

The forum was organised by various regional and international organisations, including Save the Children, The Inter-Agency network for Education in Emergencies, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNISDR, the Austrian Development Agency and the Netherlands.

The education ministers agreed to engage in multi stakeholder “Worldwide Initiatives for safe Schools (WISS) by supporting the implementation of the Comprehensive Safe School Framework and the Model Safe School Programme in the Caribbean for public and private facilities at all levels.

They also pledged to source financial and other resources from the national, regional and international community and coordinate with national and regional disaster management bodies to integrate the tenets of Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) into education polices.