Tag: earthquake

MOE: TKPS Students Were On Simpler Via Ferrata Route

The Ministry of Education (MOE) clarified on Wednesday (Jun 10) that the Tanjong Katong Primary School (TKPS) team was on a simpler route on Mount Kinabalu when the earthquake struck.

Compared with the regular Via Ferrata route, where the elevation of the starting point is 3,520m, the pupils, teachers and their guides began on a route at an elevation of 3,411m, stated the MOE.

Mountain Torq, which manages the Via Ferrata, added that this was also a shorter route – 281m (indicated in red below) instead of the original route (in green), which is 430m long.

An MOE spokesperson said: “This is a less steep route compared to the full Walk the Torq route.” She confirmed that the TKPS teams have been using the simplified route since 2010.

On Sunday, the MOE, based on its initial interviews with teachers and pupils who survived the trip, said the team were on the well-known Via Ferrata route.

A Via Ferrata is a mountain path comprising a series of rungs, rails and cables on the rock face. Climbers must wear helmets and harnesses to attempt this route and must be at least 10 years old.

The school has been sending teams to Mount Kinabalu for the past seven years, attempting the original route for the first two years, said Mountain Torq marketing director Quek I-Gek.

She said the simplified route was also only for a selected group of trekkers. Referring to the TKPS pupils who had taken the Via Ferrata, Ms Quek added: “They’re the best students we’ve guided. Consistently, they’re better physically and mentally.”

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 12, 2015
School Heads: Rigourous Risk Assessments Done Before Overseas Expeditions

Whether it is kayaking or trekking, students at Raffles Institution have a variety of choices when it comes to leadership courses. But before embarking on any expedition, the school will conduct a rigorous risk management assessment.

Said Head of Department at the Raffles Institute for Experential Learning Kuak Nam Jin: “MOE (Ministry of Education) has a very well-established risk management matrix. We follow that very closely. We go on recce trips to look at the place. The staff would often embark on the entire route of the destination to find out how vigorous or intense it is. We have to find out in history whether other schools have used it before, what is the feedback?”

Once a place has been chosen, training to prepare the students physically for the trip begins, according to Mr Kuak: “We would prepare our students physically for the trip which often involves general physical conditioning pretty much like PE conditioning. And then there’s also specific training.

“For instance if you are climbing a mountain, then you really need to get students to be climbing the stairs, carrying their backpack so that they develop the right type of muscles in the physical conditions to allow them to perform on the mountain.”

The safety of such expeditions is in the spotlight, in the wake of a tragedy where six students and a teacher from Tanjong Katong Primary School died, while climbing on Mount Kinabalu in Sabah as part of an overseas learning journey, called the Omega Challenge last week. Their Singaporean adventure guide was killed as well, and a teacher and a student from the school are still missing.

Another school head said scenario training will be conducted to equip students with necessary skills to react to emergencies – such as dealing with an injury.

“We have to think about many categories of risk, covering issues from whether the children have enough food and water, to where the nearest medical facilities are,” said Ms Haslindah Bahrom, Vice-Principal and Chief Safety Officer at Eunos Primary School. “If there are possible risks, we discuss how to mitigate them. It’s not just for overseas excursions. We do this for learning journeys within Singapore – and even for activities within school, like Sports Day and carrying out experiments in our Science labs.”

The onus is also on educators to assess the student’s ability for such physically demanding programmes.

Said Ms Haslindah: “As you train your students, you are able to identify which students are having trouble keeping up with the training or they may have old injuries that may come back to haunt them or they are struggling with that. I think as educators you have to make a decision whether the student should drop out of the programme or we make a decision to moderate the intensity of the programme so that every student can participate in the programme.”

HOLISTIC LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Educators encourage parents to send their children on overseas expeditions as they contribute to a holistic learning experience. Some students who took up the Omega Challenge at Tanjong Katong Primary told Channel NewsAsia that the expedition had taught them valuable life skills.

“It teaches you perseverance and discipline and it pushes your limits and tests them,” said one of them, Zara Karim. “Mount Kinabalu taught me a lot of skills like how to work with people, how to communicate. And that’s been very useful in project work and working within CCA with people.”

The students added that the six-month training before the expedition was sufficient to prepare them for the physical challenges.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 10, 2015
Earth In Period Of Active Seismic Activity

Nature’s wrath struck in 2004, when a tsunami hit the coasts of several countries around the Indian Ocean. This marked the beginning of what geologists call an “active cycle”, where the Earth experiences greater seismic activity.

Said Professor Kerry Sieh, director at the Earth Observatory of Singapore: “The Earth goes through cycles of seismic energy release, and less release and more release.

“We have definitely been in the active cycle in the last 11 years since 2004. All the magnitude-8.4 earthquakes and bigger, up to 9.2, they all happened in the last 11 years. Several of those have been in Asia.”

The previous active cycle was in the 1950s to mid-1960s, which saw several earthquakes with a magnitude of a high 8 and above 9. But for the next 40 years, there were no records of a quake with a magnitude above 8.3, until 2004.

Since then, a string of devastating earthquakes has caused much destruction, like in Sumatra in 2005 and Fukushima, Japan, in 2011.

“We don’t know whether we are at the end of the cycle or not,” said Professor Sieh. “My hunch is we will continue to see a larger number of large earthquakes. But that’s only a hunch because we don’t really have a way of telling whether we are at the end of the cycle or not.”

In response to the recent Sabah quake, Professor Sieh supported the call by Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to relook safety protocols for climbers on Mount Kinabalu and also offered his team’s expertise.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 10, 2015
Sabah Quake Victim Muhammad Daanish Amran Remebered As Always Happy

“He was looking forward to this Mount Kinabalu trip,” shared Syafiq Abdul Ghani, a close friend of Muhammad Daanish Amran, the Singaporean adventure guide who lost his life in the Sabah Quake last week. That was the last time Syafiq spoke to Daanish.

The 22-year-old’s final trip was with Tanjong Katong Primary School on an expedition. Along with seven others from Singapore, he did not make it down the mountain.

Syafiq met Daanish in 2011 when they were both volunteers with a Malay youth literary association, 4PM. They soon became fast friends. The group of volunteers often participated in activities together and had regular gatherings. “He was always excited about doing his job, he was always happy, he was always looking forward to every next project, every next event,” Syafiq told Channel NewsAsia.

Another volunteer from the association, Mysara Mohamad Aljaru, remembers Daanish with equal fondness. “From the mischievous grin he always had on his face to our inside jokes and ‘deep talks’, he always never failed to annoy yet cheer me up when I was feeling down. Daanish was someone who accepted you as you were, I never once felt I had to be someone else around him.”

On Monday (Jun 8), the Day of National Remembrance for the Sabah earthquake victims, both Syafiq and Mysara attended Daanish’s burial at the Muslim Cemetery at Lim Chu Kang. The burial took place in the morning between the hours of 9am and 11am.

“His father had a stoic look on his face,” said Charles Phang, a producer of INSIGHT, who filmed the video. “He definitely seemed as if he had accepted what had happened.”

Daanish, an eldest child and graduate of Nanyang Polytechnic, had been working as a freelance adventure instructor for 2-3 years. According to his friends, he was passionate about the outdoors and leading people.

For the full story on the Sabah Quake, don’t miss the special episode of INSIGHT: When the Earth Rumbles this Thursday (June 11), 8pm on Channel NewsAsia.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 10, 2015
TKPS Student Survivor: Teachers Were Heroes

Emyr Uzayr, one of the Tanjong Katong Primary School students that survived the earthquake in Sabah last week, returned to Singapore early Sunday morning (Jun 7) and is now in the high dependency ward at the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. He has been seeing a steady stream of visitors since his return, including the Education Minister Heng Swee Keat on Sunday evening.

“He is recovering, even with the fracture on his skull,” said his father Sadri Farick. “We are not going to proceed with the operation because there might be risks. We are just going to leave it (to heal) naturally because we have been advised by the neurosurgeons.”

According to Emyr, one of his teachers, Mohamed Faizal, who recovering from his injuries, had used his body to shield three of the pupils from falling rocks and boulders on Mount Kinabalu during the earthquake. The other teachers on trip include Mr Terrence Loo, who was among seven from the school who died, and Mr Mohammad Ghazi, who is still missing.

Mr Sadri paid tribute to the teachers for their selfless acts. “They went two or three miles, helping them, shielding them, taking the hits, even with a broken skull and bones, they still brought them down 7 kilometres in blocked paths,” said Mr Sadri. “To me and most of the parents I’ve talked to, we owe it to the teachers.

“For the others who have perished, I know for the late Mr Terrence, he did help a bunch and he went up again. He’s a real hero and as for Mr Ghazi, who is still missing – undeniably – I was told by some of the kids that he helped and he went up back again,” he said.

“All the students said they are very nice teachers. They would stay behind after school hours and work about 13 hours a day for the children and loved their job.”

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 9, 2015