Vol. 532 No. 1
389 Mr. Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will confirm the continuation of the walk tall and on my own two feet substance abuse prevention programmes for primary and secondary schools; the numbers which have participated to date; the evaluation and analysis which has been carried out on the programmes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6864/01]
The walk tall programme continues in primary schools. It is expected that by June 2001 a total of 3,000 schools will have accessed support from my Department for this programme. The On My Own Two Feet programme has now been subsumed into the social, personal and health education – SPHE – programme. By the end of 2003 every post-primary school is expected to have SPHE as an integral part of its programme in junior cycle.
An evaluation of both programmes was carried out by an external, independent consultant. The evaluation of the walk tall programme was carried out among teachers who had been involved with it and the satisfaction rate in regard to the training received by them and the materials provided for them was very high.
The evaluation of the on my own two feet was carried out among students. The report on that programme indicated that students who had been exposed to the programme had stronger belief in the negative outcomes of substance misuse. The programme was found to have significant effects in the area of self-esteem and assertiveness. The report concludes that a social skills approach is best suited to providing the generic skills that can be applied to many situations such as smoking, alcohol abuse or other substance misuse and in other life skills situations.
