KOBE (Kyodo) Fifteen years after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake devastated Kobe and its vicinity on Jan. 17, 1995, teachers are finding it difficult to make children appreciate the full extent of the disaster, a survey showed.
A questionnaire completed by 242 teachers at public elementary schools in Kobe showed that as many as 71 percent are struggling to impart to their pupils the severity of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, through such efforts as telling their own or acquaintances' stories about the disaster and inviting survivors to classrooms.
Conducted in November and December with the cooperation of the municipal education board, the survey targeted teachers at 11 selected schools from 166 public schools in the city's nine wards, of whom 80 percent were directly affected by the disaster that killed more than 6,000 people.
In reply to a multiple response question on what they find difficult about disaster prevention education, the largest portion of respondents — 71 percent — pointed to the difficulty of getting pupils to understand the tragedy and other aspects of the disaster.
Of the respondents, 43 percent found it hard to get pupils prepared routinely for disasters through education. Meanwhile, 36 percent said the issue of how to take care of students and parents with quake victims in their lives requires careful consideration.
Meanwhile, 38 percent said they mostly want to impart the importance of life through education. Asked if their efforts are connecting with students, 69 percent said they think so to some extent, while 4 percent had a negative view and 22 percent said they cannot tell.