TEACHERS AWARENESS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SCHOOL-BASED DISASTER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM: BASES FOR A PROPOSED ACTION PLAN

Objectives: This study aimed to determine teachers' level of awareness on the implementation of a school-based disaster risk reduction management program in the public elementary schools in the Northern Iloilo, Province of Iloilo, the Philippines, during the school year 2020-2021. Methods: It utilized descriptive research and a researcher-made questionnaire to obtain the level of awareness of the 179 teachers on the implementation of a school-based disaster risk reduction management program on the identified six calamities, namely earthquake, typhoon, flood, tsunami, fire, and landslide. The researcher-made questionnaire has been submitted for validity and reliability testing and Cronbach's Alpha was used to determine its reliability. The statistical tools used were frequency count, percentage, Mean, Median, standard deviation, Mann- Whitney U test, and Kruskal Wallis H test. The level of significance was all set at 0.05 alpha level. Findings: Results revealed that when the respondents were taken as an entire group, their level of awareness in terms of the earthquake, typhoon, flood, and landslide was described as "Extremely aware" while in terms of tsunami and fire were described as "Moderately aware." No significant differences were found in the level of awareness on implementing school-based disaster risk reduction management programs when classified as sex, age, length of service, and school distance, in all the calamities identified in this study. Likewise, no significant differences were found in the level of awareness on implementing a school-based disaster risk reduction management program when classified as the place of residence in terms of the earthquake, typhoon, flood, tsunami, and fire. But there is a significant difference in teachers' level of awareness on implementing school-based disaster risk reduction management programs of those teachers living in the Poblacion and Barangay in terms of landslides