By Gavin Mackintosh And Nikki Greener-
British schools must take drug education seriously if the war on drugs is to be won. Ongoing research by The Eye of Media.Com show that the education received in schools on drugs is either insufficient or none existent.
Drug abuse is destroying the lives of many youngsters who go on to lead hopeless lives as adults.
Writers and researchers from The Eye Of Media.Com spent the best part of two days talking to primary and secondary school pupils about the education they receive or have received about drugs. A number of parents and teachers were also spoken to, some on phone, so in person. Research in this area has been conducted by this publication before, but in small doses,earlier in the year and in 2017, as part of wider research into academic education in the Uk.
The idea was revisited early last week, shortly after the new semester began, as part of out goal to influence and raise the level of awareness of children in the area of drugs. The Eye Of Media.Com has conducted research on drug addiction in adults in the last two years, but done a limited amount in relation to education in schools. It has been touched upon briefly during focused research on the standard of primary and secondary school academic research Many primary and secondary pupils spoken to do not know the detailed harmful effects of cocaine, heroine, or even soft drugs like cannabis, because detailed teaching about these drugs is scarce. The psychological reasons people become addicted to drugs do not appear to be taught in the few schools that actually have a history of drug education.
The Eye Of Media.Com has recommended that these schools go into details about the psychological reasons people go into drugs like peer pressure, low self esteem, sexual abuse, rejection, and other influences that affect young people and also adults. Understanding the causes of drug addiction can help young people see the signs ahead of time and resist the temptation to yield to drugs. An important point is the absence of expert and knowledgeable teachers to thoroughly cover the issue of drugs with young pupils, one parent told The Eye Of Media.Com: ”the trouble is you can bet your life there are many teachers who do coke(cocaine), so where will they get the motivation to warn pupils about drugs, if they are on it themselves?
The fact is that if the necessary details for drug education is contained in the curriculum, teachers will be forced to cover every aspect of drugs for the educational benefits of pupils. A more ideal situation would be for expert teachers in those areas to be employed to properly increase the knowledge of pupils and ensure they understand the dangers of drugs and see examples of how it destroys lives.
ADEQUATE
A lack of adequate resources for teaching drug and alcohol education has been raised as some of the problems experienced by some schools, but this CAN BE addressed by providing wide theoretical teaching on the subject AND providing practical examples that include graphics like pictures and video recordings of the various effects of drugs on addicts. Some primary schools have long been effective in enlightening their pupils on drug education, using many useful tools to achieve this. There are still sadly many schools lacking greatly in this respect. Of the limited sample of 8 primary schools observed in the past week and a half, only two of those schools were able to demonstrate close to adequate teaching of drugs to their pupils.
Several members of our team were allocated to various schools under arrangements with school heads, but under the expected agreement that we do not mention their school publicly in any negative sense. Education about alcohol and its dangers were not touched in any great detail, and awareness on drugs was considered poor after we assessed the findings of our inquiries with teachers and pupils.The connection between drugs and mental health was made in 3 of the 8 schools we looked at, but this was not done in any satisfactory detail.
The Eye Of Media.Com will be arranging to research more schools as part of our campaign to educate pupils about the harmful effects of drugs.