Drug Abuse Education In Nigerian Schools Not Enough To Help Teenagers, Says Group

Drug Abuse Education In Nigerian Schools Not Enough To Help Teenagers, Says Group

A group, Reclaiming Futures in Northern Nigeria (REFINN), has said drug abuse education in Nigerian Schools is not sufficient to help teenagers who are most vulnerable to the scourge. 

The group, which is a project of four alumni of the United States-sponsored International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP), made the revelation after a one-week training workshop in Kaduna state.

The workshop, according to McBishop Ogueji, coordinator of the project, is a preventive education programme to equip the teenagers with life skills required to deal with their vulnerabilities and avoid turning to drugs. 

Experiences

Some students who participated in the workshop spoke on their exposure to the subject of drug abuse.

Sharing her experience, Stella Danjuma, a final-year student of Government Girls Secondary School, Kabala Costain, said she had never heard about the names of drugs commonly abused by youths and what the drugs do to the human body. 

She revealed that her school talks generally to the students on drug abuse occasionally during assembly time in the morning before classes begin.

Her counterpart at De Victory International School, Abubakar Kigo Road, Anaekwe Kenneth, said the school teaches drug abuse as part of Basic Science in the junior secondary school. 

“But we’ve never heard about the names of these drugs and their effects on the body, especially the brain,” he said. 

REFINN noted that none of the 80 senior secondary school students selected from different schools in the state capital could explain properly the negative effects of drug abuse. 

And while most of them could define drug abuse, they had no clue about addiction and the dangers it poses, or how to fight motivation for drug use. 

The group which is sponsored by the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund of the US Department of State with support from the US Embassy in Nigeria called on stakeholders to do more in ensuring drug abuse education in all Nigerian Schools.

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SaharaReporters, New York



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Source: Drug Abuse Education In Nigerian Schools Not Enough To Help Teenagers, Says Group