Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake: Maiko High School; Environment & Disaster Mitigation Course Establishment of Specialized Course on Disaster Mitigation

• Based on the lesson learned from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that there is a need of a place to learn the importance of life and ties with people, and also for the purpose of making schools with special features, which has been promoted as a part of the high school reform, Maiko High School (MHS) established a specialized course on disaster mitigation in April 2002 for the first time in Japan, after two years of preparation started in March 2000.

• The fact that MHS had been actively involved in disaster mitigation education by utilizing periods for integrated studies has also lead to the establishment of the course.

• The course is not limited to lessons taught by the school teachers. It contains features such as invitation of many external lecturers, provision of opportunities to learn outside the classroom, volunteer activities by the students, visiting classes in elementary schools by the students, exchange with the local community, expansion of activity network to other schools (developing junior leaders for disaster mitigation), etc.

• Creation of MHS's own curriculum for a specialized course on disaster mitigation has naturally fostered MHS’s basic stance that educators and learners “seriously” make mutual efforts and return their results to the local community.