-Waramadong students use gasoline and glue
Marijuana has penetrated the school system and students are walking around with red eyes and testing positive for the substance, according to Chief Welfare Officer Banmattie Ram, who says an intensive campaign has been initiated to tackle the problem.
Three students in the city have tested positive for marijuana use since the new school term and equally worrying was the issue of students at Waramadong, in Region Seven, that were getting high after sniffing a mixture of gasoline and Evostick glue. “The issue at Waramadong alarmed us so we went up and without any delay begun intensive counseling sessions… but the issue of drug use is more a problem in city schools than anywhere else, since most of our reports are in Georgetown,” Ram said during an oral presentation to the Parliament Sectoral Committee on Social Services on Friday.
Marijuana in the school system affected performance to some extent, but Ram was keen to point out that the numbers of reported cases were not that high. She confirmed that the illegal substance had been found on the person of a child only recently and said that matter was now before the courts.
The Ministry of Education policy regarding drug use, which Ram spoke of extensively, makes provisions for students to be handed over to the police if found with drugs. However, parents are first called in and the police are not allowed to make any arrests on school property.
MPs emphasised the issue of marijuana being readily available to school-age children and the presence of suspected drug pushers around schools, urging the Education Ministry to address the issues that were contributing to the problem of drug abuse in the school system.
Statistics such as the age, gender and actual numbers of children that were abusing drugs in schools were not available on Friday. Ram told the committee that they were still compiling data and were in the process of preparing a report, which would subsequently be passed on to the committee. It was also unclear as to whether students were working as drug contacts inside the system, since according to Ram, no study had been undertaken and there had also been no report.
Recent drug busts involving school-age children were among the concerns raised by the committee as it shifted focus from the actual complaints on file to how the Ministry of Education was dealing with the issue. Ram admitted that they were still working on strategies and stressed that there were campaigns targeting schools that were meant to sift out the students who were using drugs. She noted that the aim of those campaigns was not to embarrass and interrogate but to identify the students who needed help and to work with them.
Further, she pointed out that the ministry was collaborating with the Salvation Army with respect to drug testing and was also working along with other international agencies to effectively tackle the issue of drug use.
According to Ram, some educators in the system were aware of where the students got drugs and they were also privy to who might be dealing to them, but they were afraid to divulge such information given the dangers involved. She said that there was even a fear of speaking to the authorities, though based on the information she had received recently, there had been some amount of cooperation between the police and educators.
The committee grilled Ram on what was happening with welfare officers in school and the roles they were playing in addressing the social issues facing children. Ram stated that the country currently had welfare officers in every region, except Region Eight. She said the numbers were not sufficient, but that every school benefited from a visit each academic term. “It is not that we are not advertising for welfare officers, but the job is apparently not attractive because people are not applying and added to that those who are will not work outside of their regions…” she said. “What must we do in such instances?”
Ram said there was a need for welfare officers to fan out in schools across the country and work along with students, and noted that it might be possible in the immediate future.
Sharlene Johnson, HIV Coordinator, Ministry of Education, informed the committee that there was an existing Health and Nutrition programme that equipped teachers with the necessary skills to address social issues within the classroom. She noted that issues such as sex education were being integrated into core subjects at school and that children were being advised from early in their school lives.
Members of the committee, however, told Ram and Johnson that they were not satisfied with the amount of information that had been presented with respect to sex education in schools, adding that the education ministry would be called upon again to provide additional information. Minister of Education Shaik Baksh was scheduled to address the committee but failed to appear owing to another engagement.
