Education for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR): Linking theory with practice in Ghana’s basic schools

This study explores the presence and nature of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) within the syllabi of the basic school system in semi-arid Northern Ghana. Significant gaps were identified between the disaster pedagogy outlined in the syllabi (theory) and that which occurs in the classroom (practice).

It was realized that while the theory outlines active and innovative techniques for teaching, learning, and evaluating DRR lessons, the below challenges hinder the practical application of these techniques:

• lack of teacher training and professional development;
• and inadequate teaching and learning materials.

A new and consolidated effort is required from all stakeholders to train teachers and to provide the appropriate learning materials to improve on the current DRR education.

Sustainability, Volume 7, Issue 7, July 2015 Pages 9160-9186. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.