| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of the study was to establish the effects of drug abuse on student discipline in public secondary schools in Mbeere South district, and to analyze the strategies used to address the problem. The ultimate aim was to propose a programme for prevention and intervention. Research question one aimed to identify the factors contributing to drug abuse among students; Research question two aimed to establish the influence of drug abuse on secondary school students on strikes and boycotts. Research question three sought to examine the extent to which drug abuse among students in secondary schools contributes to bullyinglharassment.
Research question four sought to for the strategies to be used in secondary schools to address cases of indiscipline as a result of drug abuse. This study adopted the social interaction theory. Social interaction theory interprets aggressive behavior (or coercive actions) as social influence behavior, that is, an actor uses coercive actions to produce some change in the target's behavior. The study was a descriptive survey, the target population consisted of all the public secondary schools in Mbeere South district. Random sampling to sample 9 head teachers, 16 teachers and 71 students in Mbeere South district. In view of this, the field survey method was adopted to collect quantitative data, using questionnaires.
Instruments validity was determined during the pilot study while the reliability was determined using internal consistency. The three sets of questionnaires were considered reliable since they had a high coefficient value of above 0.7. The researcher sought permit from the Ministry of Higher Education in the Department of National Council for Sciences and Technology before embarking on the field study. After obtaining the permit, the researcher took copies of the research permit to the DEO and DC Mbeere South District. The researcher then administered the questionnaires personally.
Descriptive statistics was used in data analysis since the data was quantitative. The analysis of structured items was mainly done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The key findings from the study were that majority of drug abusers are forms two and three students implying that majority of indiscipline cases as a result of drug abuse are experienced among forms two and three students and that the commonly abused drugs in the region are alcohol and khat.
Both the school administrators and teachers face a number of challenges in an attempting to curb cases of indiscipline as a result drug abuse in schools. Among other recommendations made, the study recommended that the government should provide enough teachers to schools so that the teaching load could be minimized hence enabling teachers who conduct counseling to find sufficient time to counsel students on issues of drugs and indiscipline. | en_US |
