ABSTRACT
School heads in disaster-prone areas face the dual burden of sustaining educational continuity while leading crisis response, making the assessment of their risk mitigation and resilience-building strategies both urgent and essential. This study assessed the strategies for mitigating risk and building resilience among school heads in disaster-prone schools in the Province of Albay during the first semester of School Year 2025-2026. Employing a quantitative descriptive-correlational research design, data were gathered from teachers, student leaders, and school heads using survey questionnaires and analyzed through frequency, percentage, weighted mean, Pearson correlation, and t-test. Findings revealed that school heads employ structured strategies at a high extent across planning, resource management, and training, with inter-operability well-institutionalized at the administrative level. Resilience-building practices were generally implemented at a high to very high extent, though gaps remain in scenario-based training, student participation in hazard mapping, and community inclusiveness in inter-agency coordination. The relationship between current strategies and resilience-building practices was not statistically significant, indicating that formal leadership strategies alone are insufficient to fully account for resilience outcomes. Psychosocial support was consistently implemented, while adaptive coping and health and well-being showed significant individual variability. The study concludes that effective resilience leadership in Albay's disaster-prone schools requires moving beyond procedural compliance toward holistic, human-centered approaches that integrate anticipatory governance, distributed agency, psychosocial well-being, and reflective learning.
Keywords: Assessment, Strategies, Mitigating, Risk, Building Resilience, School Heads, Province of Albay
INTRODUCTION
According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR, 2022), education systems in hazard-prone areas are not only physically threatened by disasters but also organizationally strained, as school leaders are often required to manage both educational and emergency functions simultaneously. In such contexts, effective leadership becomes a crucial determinant of a school’s resilience, influencing how institutions prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. The ability of school heads to lead with adaptability, resourcefulness, and emotional intelligence determines the continuity of learning and the protection of both students and staff.
This study is equally aligned with SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, which aims to make human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. This goal is directly pertinent to the context of Albay’s schools, which serve not only as educational institutions but also as critical community infrastructure during and after disasters. Schools in disaster-prone areas frequently function as evacuation centers, command hubs, and community recovery points, placing them at the center of sustainable and resilient community development. Furthermore, the study connects with SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, which calls for the building of resilient infrastructure, the promotion of inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and the fostering of innovation. In the educational context, infrastructure resilience encompasses not only the physical soundness of school buildings but also the institutional systems, communication technologies, and leadership frameworks that sustain school operations under crisis conditions.
The study is further aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 4: Quality Education and SDG 13: Climate Action. SDG 4 emphasizes the importance of ensuring inclusive, equitable, and quality education while promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. This goal underscores the need for schools to remain functional, adaptive, and resilient even in times of crisis, ensuring that learners continue to receive uninterrupted and meaningful instruction. Meanwhile, SDG 13 calls for urgent action to combat climate change and strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards, which directly relates to how schools prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. Given that Albay is one of the most hazard-prone provinces in the Philippines and is frequently experiencing typhoons, volcanic activity, flooding, and landslides, the integration of SDG 4 and SDG 13 becomes essential.
Leadership during crises requires balancing administrative, instructional, and humanitarian roles under extreme pressure. In disaster-prone schools, school heads are expected to provide stability amid uncertainty, ensure the safety of learners and staff, and sustain educational operations despite infrastructural and psychological challenges. Studies have emphasized that disasters exacerbate existing educational inequities, particularly in rural and marginalized areas (Aguinaldo et al., 2023). Thus, the leadership capacity of school heads becomes a key factor in minimizing disruptions, mobilizing community support, and maintaining morale among teachers and learners. The Department of Education (DepEd) underscores the role of School Heads as front-liners of resilience building, emphasizing preparedness, coordination, and crisis management as integral leadership competencies (DepEd, 2023). However, despite policy frameworks like the Comprehensive School Safety Policy, school leaders in Albay continue to face systemic barriers such as limited resources, delayed communication, and insufficient training in disaster leadership.
Furthermore, the study responds to the call for leadership models that are contextually relevant to disaster-prone regions. Previous international studies have examined educational leadership in crises caused by pandemics and earthquakes. The findings indicate that school leaders took the initiative to meet the physical and emotional needs of the school community after the earthquake, acted strategically in decision-making processes, established stronger communication with the internal and external stakeholders, and took the lead in ensuring the continuity of educational activities. These practices imply that school leaders played a crucial role in mitigating the effects of the earthquake, meeting needs and supporting the school community in the normalization process. The findings of this study may enrich our understanding of school leadership practices during crises and provide insights into school leaders’ practices in future crises (Sarıgöz et al., 2025; Lopez, 2024).
The Philippines, being one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, faces numerous challenges in ensuring the continuity of education in the face of natural calamities. Albay Province, located within the Pacific Ring of Fire and the typhoon belt, has long been a focal point of disaster vulnerability, with frequent typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes disrupting lives and schooling.
In Bicol, a study determined the challenges encountered by thirty-four (34) public secondary school heads in the second district of Albay. This research adopted a mixed-method approach for both quantitative and qualitative research designs. Using the adopted survey questionnaire, the result shows that public secondary school heads in the second district of Albay highly implemented most of the functions of school heads as stipulated in R.A 9155. The results highlight that the most common challenges encountered were: (1) expressing ownership and personal responses to the identified issues; (2) enriching curricular offerings based on local needs; and (3) providing an environment that promotes the use of technology among learners and teachers. In terms of coping mechanisms, some of these were attending seminars and capacity building, teaming up with their communities, and talking to the right people. It is recommended that the focus on the development of competencies for school heads be continued and strengthened and provide them with the necessary support, recognition, and resources to continue their innovative practices and enhance the learning environment (Lozada, 2024).
This study focuses on assessing the strategies for mitigating risk and building resilience among school heads in disaster-prone schools in the Province of Albay. Specifically, it examines the current strategies employed by school heads in planning, resource management, and training; determines the level of their mitigating risk and resilience-building practices; investigates the relationship between these strategies and resilience-building practices; and identifies the factors influencing resilience building in terms of psychosocial support, adaptive coping mechanisms, and health and well-being. The problematic situation underlying this study stems from the persistent gap between policy mandates and actual disaster leadership capacity in Albay’s schools. While DepEd has issued comprehensive guidelines for school disaster risk reduction and management, school heads continue to encounter systemic barriers including limited financial resources, insufficient specialized training, inadequate infrastructure, and delayed inter-agency communication. These challenges are compounded by the province’s extreme geographic vulnerability, situated within the typhoon belt and the volcanic hazard zone of Mt. Mayon, which subjects schools to recurring, compounded disasters with diminishing recovery windows. The absence of a contextually grounded and empirically validated leadership framework for disaster-prone Philippine schools further deepens this gap, leaving school heads to navigate crises largely through individual adaptive capacity rather than institutionalized leadership models. This study responds directly to this problematic situation by generating localized, evidence-based insights that can inform leadership development, policy enhancement, and institutional resilience-building in Albay and comparable disaster-prone regions.
In a broader sense, this research contributes to both theoretical and practical discourses in educational management and disaster risk reduction. Theoretically, it situates leadership within the framework of resilience and crisis adaptation, highlighting how leadership practices evolve under stress. Practically, it provides evidence-based recommendations for policymakers, DepEd officials, and local disaster management offices to strengthen school leadership systems in disaster contexts. Ultimately, the study envisions contributing to the sustainability and safety of education in Albay by recognizing the indispensable role of school heads as both educational leaders and crisis managers.
The study is guided by the following research objectives: (1) to identify current strategies employed by school heads in planning, resource management, and training; (2) to determine the level of their mitigating risk and resilience-building practices along capacity building, hazard mapping, crisis decision-making and adaptability, innovation and problem-solving, and inter-operability; (3) to assess the significant relationship between strategies and resilience-building practices; (4) to determine the factors influencing resilience building in terms of psychosocial support, adaptive coping mechanisms, and health and well-being; and (5) to develop an Adaptive Leadership Model for Crisis Management to strengthen leadership response.
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