Many school authorities find it hard to eliminate drug use among students. They always expel those found abusing drugs but the habit remains. Much as students are fully aware of the consequences, some of them do not abandon the vice. I think we need to focus more on what compels learners to engage in this bad act other than getting rid of those who are caught red handed. 

The major reason why I do not buy the idea of just expelling whoever is found abusing or in possession drugs is that a student who is expelled from a given school can easily join another school. Most private schools are profit driven and the more students they enroll, the more profits they get.

Moreover, there is no system in place which compels the administrators of private schools to demand for recommendations from the school where a given student has been.

As long as the individual passes the interview, he is given a vacancy in the school. If he is already a drug addict, he may continue with the habit in his new school. In the process, he may influence other students to engage in the vice.

Ironically, if a school gets rid of a student due to drug abuse, the individual joins another school which has no knowledge of his conduct and the very school which expelled the individual may admit another student who might have been expelled from another school for the same reasons.

It is like an exchange programme whereby schools unknowingly keep exchanging drug addicts and the habit continues to grow among the young people.

I think that school authorities should concentrate more on identifying the factors that influence learners to take drugs and find ways of helping them to abandon the vice.

There are students who have emotional challenges that they fail to cope with and as a way of escaping from the stressful reality, they resort to using drugs to forget about their problems.

Nowadays we have a number of students whose parents are divorced and they fail to accept their situations. If such individuals are not given adequate support in form of counselling, they can easily abuse drugs.

There are also learners who spend a long time without seeing their parents owing to the fact that the parents work in very distant places. I have interacted with students who can spend say six months or even a year without seeing their parents.

They feel a lot of pain during visitation days when they see their colleagues enjoying happy moments with their parents. As result, those who do not have adequate self control decide to take drugs in order to escape from the painful reality.

The fact is that many young people have challenges that they fail to deal with and if schools continue to punish those who abuse drugs without putting in place mechanisms to help them recover, the problem will remain on our hands.

I wish to suggest that schools most especially those with boarding facilities should employ professional  counsellors or they should hire them on part time basis so as to help those who are suspected to be involved in drug abuse.

Students who are addicted to drugs may fear to confide in their teachers thinking that they will be punished or labeled as drug addicts but they may feel free to share such information with professional counsellors who may offer the necessary support.

There are many indicators that we can base on to identify drug users and put them on counselling programmes.

We should also carry out lots of impromptu checks in the students’ dormitories, classrooms and washrooms so as to remove all forms of contraband from their midst.

The times have changed whereby we need to adopt a comprehensive approach that enables young people shun illicit drugs.

The writer is a  teacher