Effectiveness of the headteachers strategies used to curb drug and substance abuse in public secondaryb schools in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

In spite of the government efforts in the fight against drug and substance abuse in Kenya, the problem is still rampant among secondary school students. The purpose of the study was to investigate administrative strategies adopted by head teachers in curbing drug and substances abuse in public secondary schools in Nairobi County, Kenya. To assess the effectiveness of the head teachers’ use of the school curriculum as a strategy for curbing DSA among students of public secondary school in Nairobi; to determine the effectiveness of the head teachers’ use of Guidance and Counselling sessions as a strategy for curbing DSA among students in public secondary schools;to establish the effectiveness of the head teachers’ involvement of school community in curbing DSA among students in public secondary school in Nairobi County;to determine the effectiveness the head teachers’ use of school rules as a strategy for curbing DSA in public secondary schools in Nairobi County; to determine how the head teachers’ strategies used to curb DSA are influenced by head teacher characteristics classified as age, gender, qualifications and experience; to establish how the head teachers’ strategies used to curb DSA are influenced by the school category. Literature relating to administrative strategies and curbing DSA in schools was reviewed. The study employed descriptive survey design. The study sample consisted of 35 head teachers, 35 heads of guidance and counselling departments selected by purposive sampling followed by 420 students selected using simple random sampling. Permission to collect data was sought from the National Council for Science and Technology. Data was collected by use of two sets of questionnaires for head teachers and students and interviews conducted with heads of Guidance and Counselling. Content validity of the research instruments was ascertained by a team of experts in Educational Administration and through piloting of the test items while reliability of the instruments was ascertained by a test-re-test technique and a coefficient of stability of 0.875 obtained using the Pearson’s product moment formula. Descriptive as well as inferential statistics were used to analyze data and the results presented in tables graphs and pie charts. The findings show that school curriculum is used to curb DSA however content on DSA in the curriculum was inadequate.Co-curricular activities (sports, drama, music and poems) were more effective in curbing DSA.Guidance and Counselling was the most preferred strategy for curbing drug abuse and all schools visited had a guidance and counselling teacher. The findings show that majority of the head teachers and teacher counsellors lacked the skills for counselling drug abusers.Teacher counsellors also doubled as subject teachers hence lacked time for counselling students. Therefore the benefits of G/C strategy have not been fully harnessed. On school community, lack of cooperation especially from parents frustrated the head teachers’ strategies to curb DSAwhile the community protected drug dealers and sometimes sold drugs to students.Therefore school xix community as a strategy for curbing DSA was not effective. The findings also indicate that head teacher characteristics such as age, gender, qualification and experience influenced their choice of strategies for curbing DSA and that school category also influenced the choice of administrative strategy used to curb DSA. The study concluded that the administrative strategies adopted by head teachersto curb DSA are not effective and that no one strategy can successfully curb drug abuse in secondary schools.Head teachers should use a combination of strategies on different DSA situations.The study recommends thatcontent on DSA in the school curriculum should be beefed up to include causes, types and effects of DSA and additional time provided to teach drug abuse. Further, head teachers and teacher counsellors should be in-serviced to equip them with skills for counselling drug abusers.Headteachers should collaborate with other stake holders in the community like parents, law enforcers, government agencies, NACADA, NGOs and FBOs so as to fight drug abuse from the supply and demand side. Given that expulsion and heavy punishment was highlighted by majority of head teachers and students as a possible strategy to curb DSA, the Ministry of Education could review its policy on punishment and expulsion especially as far as war against drug abuse in schools is concerned