An education ministry panel has proposed strengthening the functions of schools during disasters after taking into consideration lessons of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The crux of the proposals, announced June 30, concerns the role of schools as evacuation centers.
Specifically, the panel proposes that schools have enough stocks of food and water to enable students and local residents to stay there for several days after disasters strike, be equipped with means of communication to be used when normal means of communication do not function and be installed with toilets that can be used even without water.
It also proposes that to cope with long stays of evacuees lasting for several weeks, schools have cooking facilities using gas, tatami mat rooms for elderly people and spaces where women can have privacy, for example while breast-feeding babies.