Vol. 497 No. 3
201 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Education and Science his views on the operation of the SMPP in primary schools; the level of the programme; its success to date; if the programme will be maintained in its current form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25142/98]
The substance misuse prevention programme, or SMPP, for primary schools has been developed by my Department and applied in selected primary schools over the past three years, which was the development period set for the project. Approximately 150 primary schools have participated in the development which was assisted by many teachers, parents, personnel from health boards and local drugs task forces and gardaí and overseen by a representative steering committee and led by a small project team in my Department. It was a successful co-operative project.
The development of the programme has been evaluated independently. I launched the evaluation report during European Drug Prevention Week. This evaluation shows that the programme, as developed and used in schools, was in line with existing programmes which have been shown to be successful elsewhere, that the educational resource material and the training and other support offered were rated very highly by the participating teachers and, in terms of level of suitability, that the programme was suitable for use with children generally. In summary, the evaluation shows that the development project has resulted in a programme of substance misuse prevention education which is perceived as being highly successful and effective.
The educational resource materials have been revised finally now in the light of the feed-back from their use. They are being printed now and will be ready in a couple of weeks. It is my intention to begin, in early 1999, the dissemination of the entire programme, which is to be called "Walk Tall", in its current form as developed to primary schools generally and to complete the dissemination process as soon as possible.
