Indian school in Tokyo closed for now

Singapore: The Global Indian International School (GIIS) in Tokyo has been shut down for three weeks to prepare it to face the new situation caused in Japan by a chain of disasters - a massive earthquake, a powerful tsunami, and a civil-nuclear emergency.

Mr. Atul Temurnikar, Singapore-based Chairman of the GIIS organization which runs a network of schools in eight countries including Japan and the United Statesbesides India disclosed here on Thursday. He said the GIIS would, as an umbrella organization, introduce civil defence measures for both tsunami as well as earthquake and [for] awareness about [nuclear] eradiation.

Some form of a learning exercise should be provided to the students at the GIIS schools so that they could protect themselves against nuclear radiation.

In a step-by-step account of how the GIIS tried to weather the after-effects of the 9.0 earthquake and the related tsunami scare in the Japanese capital last week, the Tokyo school principal, Rajeswary Sambathrajan, said the evacuation of students was carried out in a standardized fashion.

Even as the somewhat-distant offshore temblor was felt at the school itself on March 11, she ordered the students to vacate the four-storey building which, in any case, had been built to withstand earthquakes. She did so, hardly being able to hold the microphone in a stable mode inside the building that experienced "a wild swing." And, as she tried to protect herself under a table thereafter, it "compressed." It was only with some effort that she extricated herself before being able to guide the students to a nearby public park.

Even as they reached the park, socially-conscious neighbours raised an alarm about the possibility of a tsunami lashing Tokyo too. At this, the students were taken to the local community centre, where most stayed until their parents or guardians could come over to escort them home. A few other students were taken home earlier itself by their teachers. 
Mrs. Sambathrajan noted that the entire operation of keeping the students safe was made easier by their constant exposure to earthquake drills, a common feature of daily life in Japan. And, the custom-built school structure, too, suffered no significant damage at all.

However, the civil-nuclear emergency, for which there was as yet no standardized civil-defence preparedness on the same scale as for earthquakes, did not put these school students to the test.