You can’t manage what you do not measure. This is the idea behind Safety Assurance one of the components of the Safety Management System. For schools, you need to monitor all happenings to ensure overall safety. There are two types of monitoring:
1) Proactive monitoring
Here, no accident has happened yet but safety tools are used to nip potential accidents in the bud. You are checking that control measures are effective, school environment is safe, staff are compliant etc. Some tools here are Inspections, surveys and audits. For example, periodic inspection of the school premises can expose broken fences, broken handrails, trailing cables, insufficient materials in the first aid box, recurring injury from the playground, hazard from a neighbouring building etc. According to news reports, the overhead water tank which killed students in a school in Anambra was from the next building. Periodic inspection could have picked up this danger. When hazards are identified, a plan of action must be set in motion. Time is crucial
2) Reactive monitoring
In this case, an accident or incident has occurred and you are extracting information to prevent a reocurrence. It is about plugging the loopholes that have been exposed. This can be achieved through accident and incident investigation. The goal here is not just to find out what has happened but to also put effective control measures in place to prevent a reocurrence.
So, what type of monitoring would you start doing?
