dc.description.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 | |