Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Education in Selected Secondary Schools in Zambia: Activities and Policy Implementation

Abstract

The study sought to establish current practices and policies in drug and alcohol abuse prevention education in selected secondary schools in Zambia. This need was necessitated by the fact that despite escalating incidences of drug and alcohol abuse among school-going children, little was known concerning prevention practices and policies used in secondary schools. This article reports on two of the study objectives which were to; (1) explore how prevention education activities were conducted in secondary schools. And (2) explore how policy guidelines were implemented in secondary schools. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design to collect, analyze and interpret both quantitative and qualitative data from 514 respondents. The study found that although a variety of activities such as lectures, discussions, video shows, role plays, drama, games and sports, were conducted, the most frequently conducted were lectures and discussions. In addition prevention education activities were irregularly conducted. It was also established that distribution of school rules to learners as they reported to school and head teachers communicating the rules to learners during school assemblies were the most used ways of implementing policy guidelines. Based on the findings, it is recommended that teachers and other prevention education providers should use activities which are more interactive such as small group discussions, role-play, and educational games. Furthermore, preventive education should be provided on a regular basis by means of multiple and booster sessions. Teachers and school administrators should constantly remind learners of the rule and regulations through multiple avenues