Vol. 503 No. 3
573 Mr. C. Lenihan asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the concerns expressed by anti-drug activists (details supplied) regarding the appointment of people to posts of responsibility with regard to a co-ordinated response to the drug problem. [9829/99]
The joint programme for Government, An Action Programme for the Millennium, while stating that an integrated philosophy of prevention will be part of its overall strategy for dealing with drugs, does not specify appointments to any of the posts referred to in the copy of the newsletter supplied. In the case of my Department's support for schools in developing educational programmes for the prevention of misuse of drugs, priority has been given to completion of the development of the substance misuse prevention programme for primary schools, Walk Tall. The preparation of this programme was completed by the end of 1998 and its dissemination to all primary schools, over a two year period, commenced early this year. There is a support team, comprising a national project officer and five teacher trainers, in place to carry out the dissemination. A sum of £1 million has been assigned for this process over the two years, 1999 and 2000.
The Walk Tall programme for primary schools was evaluated independently and the outcome of this evaluation has indicated that it is suitable for children generally in primary schools, and that teachers regard the programme positively.
The programme of substance misuse prevention education for post-primary schools, On My Own Two Feet, which was introduced in 1995, continues to be supported by my Department. Twelve substantial in-career development courses on implementing the programme, for post-primary teachers, were held during the current school year, each course lasting 50 hours. Further such training programmes are being planned for the coming school year. This training support is co-ordinated by the Department of Education and Science.
In the context of the revised curriculum for primary schools social, personal and health education will be introduced as part of the phased introduction of the revised curriculum. The substance misuse prevention education programme will be subsumed as part of SPHE as it is introduced.
