By Pascal Mwandambo
Education officials in Taita-Taveta County have raised the red flag over the rising cases of drug abuse in schools.
They are calling for concerted efforts of all education stakeholders to address the problem.
Addressing parents, teachers and local leaders at Mwangea Boys Secondary School in Voi during the flagging off of a Ksh8 million bus, county TSC Director Daniel Mochama pointed out that future careers would be at stake if students continued to take drugs.
“Education standards could be severely compromised if the drug problem is not addressed,” said Mochama.
The TSC official said that parents and the wider community were aware who the drug suppliers were and challenged them to expose the culprits to security agencies so that they could be apprehended.
Mr Mochama asked parents to be alert in noting behaviour changes in their children which could indicate that they were abusing drugs and substances.
He at the same time called on education stakeholders to work out modalities on improving education standards in the county.
He wondered why neighbouring Makueni County was performing better in national examinations than Taita-Taveta, yet their environmental and living conditions were harsher than in the latter.
“While we are working around the clock to address the problem of teacher shortage, parents should up their efforts to improve the education standards of their children,” said the official, adding that the concept of free education had been misconstrued by some parents to mean that everything will be supplied by the government.
“There is nothing much to celebrate as far as the latest examinations results are concerned. A lot more needs to be done to raise the standards,” said Mochama.
