Schools told to be drug-free

Govt also orders ban on mobile phones for students, teachers

LAHORE:

The Punjab government has instructed the Lahore district government to cancel the registration of schools that fail to obtain a certificate of being drug-free.

The school education department issued a notification advising the heads of the educational institutions to get the certificate after ensuring that no student was taking drugs on the campus.

All the government and private schools in the provincial capital were advised to nominate controllers responsible to check the use of drugs on the premises.

Besides drugs, the administrators have also been advised to impose a strict ban on the use of mobile phones in the schools.

According to sources, the provincial government had instructed the top authorities of the school education department to launch a crackdown against the use of drugs among the students due to rising concerns about the menace.

The decision comes a week after an incident of use of drugs and thrashing of a student by her friends took place in a private school in the city. The incident triggered a debate on the social media.

Government officials were also concerned after the incident, who held meetings on the matter, after which the government sent the instructions to the department to take measures to curb the use of drugs in the schools of Lahore.

Following the instructions, the department issued the communique to Lahore District Education Authority, officers and government and private school heads, advising the institutions to ensure that no student was using narcotics or any drugs risky for their health.

The department instructed the district education authority to obtain a declaration from each government and private school that it was drug-free. It also ordered that a drug controller should be nominated in each school to check and ensure that the environment of the institution was drug-free.

It was also advised that the school administrations should display the name of the drug monitor at a prominent place so that the students and teachers should be aware of his or her responsibilities.

The notification also advised that all schools should ban the use of mobile phones and other similar devices within their premises.

It was also declared that in addition to the students, no schoolteacher should use a mobile phone during lectures in classrooms.

A senior official told The Express Tribune that that the Punjab School Education Department was committed to launch strict action against use drug abuse in schools, while in the first phase of the campaign the educational institutions in Lahore had been targeted because of complaints of increase in the menace in the city.

“We have issued instructions for steps inside the schools, but we are also taking the help of police to take action outside the premises to stop the elements responsible for supply drugs to students,” he said.

“It is alarming that young students are becoming victims of drugs and the situation is especially alarming in the private schools in Lahore,” he added.

He said it had been decided that the registration of the schools failing to eliminate drug use among students would be cancelled.

Punjab Teachers Union secretary general Rana Liaqat Ali said, "We are happy that the government has finally decided to take measures to stop the use of drugs and surely we will try our best to ensure the implementation of the instructions. It is our prime responsibility to care about the students’ health.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2023.