The Department of Education (DepEd) has launched the Rapid Assessment of Damages Report (RADaR) mobile and web applications to ensure immediate response interventions and learning continuity in the event of disasters and other emergencies.
DepEd launched the mobile and web applications on Sept. 22 and 24 in partnership with Save the Children Philippines and Prudence Foundation.
“The RADaR mobile and web applications will support our regional, division, and school-based Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Coordinators in reporting and rapidly assessing the impacts of disasters,” said DepEd Undersecretary for Administration Alain del Pascua.
DepEd had been working on enhancing the safety for all learners and DepEd personnel through the development of the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Information System (DRRMIS) even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pascua noted that the reports from the RADaR app will “provide estimates of the damages caused by disasters and will serve as the basis for response interventions to these schools.”
Save the Children Philippines Chief Executive Officer Atty. Alberto Muyot emphasized that the mobile and web applications will be vital in ensuring the safety of learners and personnel once the safe resumption of face-to-face classes is allowed.
“Children will bear the greatest impact if a disaster takes place in a school environment, and we must guarantee their safety during emergencies while they are away from their parents and guardians,” Muyot, a former DepEd Undersecretary, added.
DepEd’s partner organizations noted that the accurate and timely data provided by the RADaR app will be vital in ensuring a strategic flow of information for response and life-saving decisions and actions by schools, communities, local governments, and concerned national organizations.
“Working hand-in-hand with the Philippine government, we are improving national systems for risk assessment, guidance, planning, and reporting to support schools to build safe facilities, put appropriate emergency procedures in place, and to recover quickly when disasters take place,” said Marc Fancy, Executive Director of Prudence Foundation, the community investment arm of PruLife UK’s parent company Prudential.
