Assessment of compliance to prescribed fire safety provisions in schools in Uganda

Abstract

Fires in schools are an issue that should not be taken lightly due to the nature of consequences they tend to come with in the event of their occurrence. Majority of the schools in Uganda lack the capacity to handle fire disasters despite the fact that there are building regulations put in place. Issues of enforcement of the prescribed fire safety provisions remain prevalent. The purpose of this study was to assess compliance to the prescribed fire safety provisions in schools in Uganda. The study was guided by the following objectives: to determine the current fire safety provisions in schools in Uganda, to assess efficiency of fire safety provisions in schools, to ascertain the level of fire safety awareness in schools in Uganda and to suggest measures to improve compliance to prescribed fire safety provisions. The research adopted a descriptive design. The target population was primary and secondary schools within Kampala district particularly Kawempe division. Stratified sampling was used to obtain strata for the sampling frame and samples were then chosen by random sampling. Data was collected using questionnaires and observation schedules then analysed using descriptive statistics. The results were presented using frequency tables, graphs and charts. The findings of the study showed that firefighting equipment in schools is inadequate, majority (58%) of school structures do not have the prescribed fire safety provisions in the building codes, students and teachers are not trained in matters pertaining to fire safety and only 38% of schools sampled carried out fire safety training which creates fire safety awareness. Based on these findings, the researcher recommended that the relevant authorities enforce the prescribed fire safety provisions to fight complacency in the compliance with prescribed fire safety provisions, fire safety training should be incorporated into the curriculum to increase the level of fire safety awareness and creation of fire safety committees in schools tasked with matters regarding fire safety. Further research could be carried out to determine the hindrances to compliance and how they can be mitigated.