Towards safer public school buildings in Lebanon: An advocacy for seismic retrofitting initiative

The essential priority of protecting children who attend schools that are vulnerable to collapse during an earthquake is irrefutable. The structural integrity of public schools in Lebanon is a source of deep concern due to their outdated design, deteriorated status and apparent lack of compliance with seismic design regulations. The purpose of this article is to advocate the seismic retrofitting of school buildings and to demonstrate the financial gain of such retrofitting procedures when compared with the cost of repair or replacement. In this paper, the authors offer practical information supported by numerical data, regarding the urgent priority of retrofitting school buildings and enhancing their functional capacity to withstand future destructive earthquakes. The aim is to alert school administrators, public leaders, government officials and international agencies regarding the seismic vulnerability of public school buildings and their subsequent effects on the safety of children in Lebanon. In addition, the authors demonstrate the economic advantages of seismic retrofitting in protecting children and their schools and calls for government intervention to assess and retrofit public school buildings to reduce their vulnerability to collapse during future earthquakes.