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This special issue of Regional Development Dialogue (RDD), devoted to "Earthquake Safety of Schoolchildren" (Vol. 28, No. 2, Autumn 2007) addresses the question of safe schools. The volume, edited by Dr. Ilan Kelman from Risk Reduction Education for Disasters (), details examples of school safety successes with the hope of providing inspiration and guidance to ensure a safe education for everyone. The authors come from all six inhabited continents and represent academics, government employees, private consultants, international organizations and non-profit workers. The topics range from evaluating disaster education material to using school safety as a route to a culture of disaster prevention. Case studies include Bogotá, Iran and Japan.

Earthquakes in Pakistan in October 2005 and China in May 2008 caused many schools to collapse, killing thousands of school staff and students who were fulfilling the human right to education. But what of the human right to safe schools? School is not just the product or object of a specific building or place, but is a social process in which education occurs; that process, by definition, should be safe. How can we make it so?

Regional Development Dialogue (RDD) seeks to provide a forum for critical discussion of regional development problems, polices, and perspectives among academicians and practitioners. It is addressed to policymakers, government officials, professional planners, and members of the academic community both in developed and developing countries.