Education for Sustainable Development: Deficiency and Construction of Disaster Education in Universities

Abstract

After the outbreak of SARS, Chinese State Council published “Master State Plan for Rapid Response to Public Emergencies”. After the outbreak of Wenchuan earthquake, May 12 of each year is designated as the “National Day for Disaster Prevention and Reduction”. Modern society is transforming from industrial society to risk society. With the widespread of human-made risks, we are facing the world out of control. Emergencies may occur at any time and sometimes cause catastrophic damage to our life in a sudden. However, Chinese universities’ disaster education did not get enough attention yet. Based on the theory of risk society and discontinuous education, this research analyzed the potential deficiency in crisis education and proposed to establish a systematic crisis education curriculum as soon as possible. Also, universities should actively carry out emergency drills to simulate the real scene of disasters to the maximum extent, so university students can develop disaster instinctive response and strengthen disaster survival skills. University students should be well-prepared for the survival challenges. Disaster education plays a critical role in transforming a crisis into a real opportunity for sustainable education development.