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The Commissioner for Narcotics, Mrs Clarie Lo, today (Saturday) unfolded a blue-print for the further development of drug education for school children in 1999 and the next millennium.

Speaking at the Seminar on "Preventive Education on Drug Abuse at Schools - towards the Next Millennium", Mrs Lo outlined no less than 16 initial ideas envisaged in the blue-print before an audience of over 340 school principals and teachers.

Two new video tapes produced by the Narcotics Division for primary 5 and 6 drug education talks were shown to school principals and teachers for the first time at the seminar. To attract primary 5 and 6 students, a cartoon format has been adopted for the videos by using a cartoon mascot - "Little Healthy Tiger" to drive messages home.

The seminar was jointly organised by the Narcotics Division, Education Department and Social Welfare Department for the first time, with the objective of obtaining the participants' views on the ideas outlined by the Commissioner and suggestions for strengthening drug education in 1999 and beyond.

The half-day seminar was chaired by the new Chairman of the Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN), Professor Lee Shiu-hung.

Delivering a key-note address at the seminar, Mrs Lo pointed out that making school children more aware of the drug abuse problem and preventing them from abusing drugs remained the primary objective of school drug education.

Besides school children, school principals, teachers, school social workers, outreach social workers, and parents were "equally important targets" for drug education, and the Government must work hand in hand with them in order to achieve the long-term objectives.

Speaking of future developments, Mrs Lo said that in order to heighten students' anti-drug awareness, and to follow up on problematic cases, innovative ideas for drug education and "after sale services" for school drug education talks would be required. The initial ideas envisaged by the Narcotics Division to strengthen the talks include:

(1) Exploring new, light-hearted and interactive approaches for disseminating anti-drug messages to school children, such as CD Rom and roving drama.

(2) Co-operating with voluntary agencies in providing drug education talks to cater for the needs of school children of different age groups.

(3) Strengthening the contents of school drug education talks to promote the concept of healthy life, and to equip school children with life skills to cope with personal problems and adapt to changes.

(4) Motivating the active participation in drug education and publicity by educators and the community through the implementation of an "Outstanding Anti-drug Worker Award Scheme".

(5) Extending drug education talks to primary students of lower forms, and providing teaching kits and drug education for teachers if resources permit.

(6) Strengthening drug education for parents so as to equip them with skills to effectively steer their children away from drugs.

The Commissioner stressed that besides the above ideas, drug education talks had to be supplemented by continuous activities for school children. The division had initially considered the following ideas:

(1) Implementing a "Student Health Ambassador Scheme" to encourage students to take part in anti-drug publicity activities and provide "peer counselling". The winner of the scheme will be awarded a trip to study drug education work overseas.

(2) Publicising messages on drug education and healthy life through the various competitions organised by government departments, as well as running separate competitions on design of posters and production of video tapes.

(3) Organising "Anti-crime and Anti-drug Education Camp" with District Fight Crime Committees to disseminate anti-drug messages to young people and parents through educational and recreational activities.

(4) Organising day camp and talks for school children at treatment and rehabilitation centres with voluntary agencies and the Correctional Services Department, or visits to the centres so as to make them more aware of the serious consequences of drug abuse.

(5) Promoting anti-drug messages among young smokers in conjunction with relevant organisations.

(6) Seeking the co-operation of chain shops frequented by young people in promoting anti-drug publicity.

(7) Running a series of major outdoor publicity activities with music as the main theme between June and September to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. The activities will culminate with a finale programme.

(8) Lowering the minimum age for joining the ACAN Youth Volunteer Group from 18 to 15 so as to recruit more junior secondary students for anti-drug work, and expanding the Group in the long term to a scale comparable with the Junior Police Call.

(9) Subject to availability of resources, carrying out another survey on the problem of drug abuse among school children in 2000 so as to evaluate the effectiveness of drug education and publicity work and to chart the course for future development.

"We hope to co-operate more closely with schools and to put the above ideas into reality, so as to push anti-drug work to another climax to enable our younger generation to grow healthily," Mr Lo concluded.

Speaking at seminar as a guest of honour, the Director of Education, Mrs Fanny Law, pointed out that drug education would face more new challenges in the 21st Century.

"Today's seminar has provided us with an excellent opportunity to study the problems relating to drug education and explore the direction of future developments. I think this is very meaningful," she noted.

Mrs Law then outlined her department's efforts in providing training and resources on drug education for schools, as well as subsidies for voluntary agencies for providing short-term education for drug abusers aged below 18 receiving treatment and rehabilitation services.

In the four financial years from 1994/95 to 1998/99, the subsidies for 10 voluntary agencies had increased by four folds from $2.2 million to $8.2 million.

Looking ahead, Mrs Law said the Education Department would continue providing training courses on preventive drug education for teachers.

Also speaking at the seminar, the Chairman of the ACAN Sub-committee on Research, Professor Daniel Shek, pointed out the number of drug abusers aged below 21 had dropped by 26.6 per cent from 1994's record 4,289 to 3,149 in 1997. The drop continued in the first nine months of 1998 during which 2,332 were reported to the Central Registry of Drug Abuse, compared with 2,672 in the same period in 1997.

He said that the Narcotics Division had carried out four surveys on the problem of drug abuse among secondary students in 1987, 1990, 1992 and 1996 in order to map out plans and to effectively use resources, and the findings of the surveys had resulted in a better understanding of the problem and students' of concept of, and attitude to, drug abuse.

After Prof.Shek's speech,the Chairman of the ACAN Sub-committee on Preventive Education and Publicity, Mr Justein Wong, introduced the Narcotics Division's revised drug education talk for primary 6 students and a new talk extended to primary 5 students for the first time last month.

The revised primary 6 talk, besides the dangers of drug abuse, educated students about life skills to adapt to new environment in secondary schools and encouraged them to lead a positive and healthy life.

The primary 5 talk educated students on the proper use of drugs and the dangers of drug abuse, and encouraged them to think and seek advice and help whenever they came across problems, Mr Wong said.

Other speakers at the seminar were the Principal Inspector (Biological Sciences) of the Education Department, Mr C. N. Ho, and the Social Work Officer in charge of the Social Welfare Department's Against substance Abuse Scheme, Mrs Fanny Cheung.

End/Saturday, February 6, 1999.

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