Extent of drug and drug abuse in selected public boarding secondary schools in Kitui District, Kenya
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Date
2005
Authors
Oyugi, Lilyann Ndanu
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
A lot of research work and investigations have revealed the prevalence of drug abuse in most
secondaryschools in Kenya. The vice is currently a topic that has continued to generate a lot
of interest to the Government, Educationists, Parents and the other Educational Stakeholders.
It has been blamed for mass indiscipline, destruction of properties and poor performance in
both curriculum and co-curriculum activities in our schools and institutions of higher
learning.The primary purpose of this study was therefore to investigate access and use of
drugs in public secondary schools in Kitui district.
To realise the purpose of the study, a descriptive survey design was adopted. Primary data
was collected by use of questionnaires. The questionnaires contained both open ended and
structured questions, which targeted students, teachers and the head teachers. Infonna1
discussions were held where necessary to seek clarification and ad?itional information from
the respondents. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data
processing and analysis. The first stage of processing and analysis involved computation of
frequencies, and percentages. The second stage involved testing of hypotheses by use of chisquare
to test for independence between observation made and patterns of association,
respectively.
The study revealed that the prevalence of drug abuse in secondary schools in Kitui District is
high. It also showed that there was a significant difference in the prevalence of drug abuse on
thebasis of gender, age, and the person a student lives with. The most common types of drug
abused by the students were cigarettes, alcohol and bhang. It further showed that the main
sourcesof drug to the students were from friends and through the school fence. The major
influencesto drug abuse were friends, drug abusing parents and siblings. The study revealed
that themost common method used to discourage drugs in schools was through guidance and
counselling.
In conclusion, it was evident that the problem of drug abuse in the schools was far from
being solved. However, means exists of effectively using guidance and counselling to
discouragedrug abuse. The study recommends that professionally trained teacher counsellors
should be posted to the schools to assist in counselling. There is also need to in-service
schooladministrators and guidance teachers on new trends in counselling.
Description
A research project report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of master of education (guidance and counselling) of Kenyatta University, HV 5808 .O98