THE Department of Education (DepEd) cautioned the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on the cost of its plan to test all students aged 10 and older throughout the country.
More important, Education Secretary Leonor M. Briones said the plan requires amending the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, which authorizes drug testing for secondary and tertiary- level students only.
Briones said students from Grade 4 (the grade level of 10-year-old students) to Grade 12 number at least 14 million.
At P200 per student for the testing fee alone, the budget stands at P2.8 billion.
There are considerable related costs for capacity-building and mobilization for the conduct of the drug testing. Briones has sought a meeting with PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino to share the DepEd’s program.
Briones said it will be good to compare the objectives of the two institutions; the DepEd’s objective is mainly to know the prevalence of drug use among public-school students so it can provide interventions compliant to its mandate, and for health reasons, so proper treatment can be provided
In a statement, the DepEd clarified it has an ongoing drug-testing program, which started in School Year 2017-2018 and will be completed in SY 2018-2019.
The program covers all 1,300 officers and personnel at the central office; 3,800 in the regional offices; and 26,000 in school division offices. It also covers a sample population of all teachers, numbering 10,000, and a sample population of all secondary students, numbering 21,000.
The sample population of secondary students and teachers is based on a sampling, designed to yield a 95-percent statistical confidence level of the result.
Before the DepEd drug testing program—for higher year levels only—was implemented, Briones made a presentation of the program before the Cabinet. The President expressed his full support of the program.
Briones noted that when it comes to the younger age range, the President’s directive is to enhance the curriculum on preventive drug education, to which the DepEd is responding.
The drug-testing program is being done pursuant to the authorized drug testing under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, specifically Section 36 (c) with respect to students, and Section 36 (d) with respect to officers and employees of public offices.
“With respect to students, the authority is to test for secondary and tertiary students. Based on the implementing regulation of the DDB [Dangerous Drugs Board], the objectives of the drug testing are: [a] to determine the prevalence of drug users among the students; [b] to assess the effectivity of school-based and community-based prevention programs; [c] to deter the use of illegal drugs; [d] to facilitate the rehabilitation of drug users and dependents; and [e] to strengthen the collaboration efforts of identified agencies against the use of illegal drugs and in the rehabilitation of drug users and dependents. The DDB regulation also provides that the number of samples should yield a statistical 95-percent confidence level for the whole student population,” the statement added.
The program is being done in close partnership with the Department of Health. The preparation and continuing capacity-building to be able to responsibly undertake the full cycle of the drug testing is an involved process: from training of personnel in the collection of urine samples; the orientation and notice of all officers, personnel, and secondary students on the objectives and guidelines of the program; and the training of personnel in the proper handling of
positive results.
The DepEd noted that drug testing is a component of a much-broader preventive drug education program. The primary mandate of the DepEd is still the integration of preventive drug education in curriculum and instruction, which includes: (a) the adverse effects of the abuse of dangerous drugs on the person, the family, the school and the community; preventive measures against drug abuse; (b) health, sociocultural, psychological, legal and economic dimensions and implications of the drug problem; (c) steps to take when intervention on behalf of a drug dependent is needed, as well as the services available for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug dependents; and, (d) misconceptions about the use of dangerous drugs such as, but not limited to, the importance and safety of dangerous drugs for medical and therapeutic use, as well as the differentiation between medical patients and drug dependents in order to avoid confusion and accidental stigmatization in the consciousness of the students.