Use drug test budget to hire guidance counselors – Gatchalian

The Senate Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian called for the scrapping of the controversial plan of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to conduct mandatory drug tests on students.

PDEA should instead use the budget to hire more guidance counselors for the Department of Education (DepEd), Gatchalian said.

DepEd said PDEA’s drug testing plan would need 12.8

billion to cover at least 14 million Grade 4 to Grade 12 students at 1200 per student

“The 12.8 billion needed to fund PDEA’s proposed mandatory drug testing of Grade 4 to Grade 12 students will be put to better use if allocated to address the shortage of guidance counselors in elementary and high schools,” Gatchalian, also the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts, and Culture, said.

He said the students would be better served by having guidance counselors correct or prevent unhealthy behavior rather than subjecting them to drug tests he said was “a potentially traumatic experience.”

“Ano na lang ang iisipin ng mga bata? (What would the young think?) It’s like we’re already treating them as drug suspects, even the ones as young as nine years old in Grade 4,” he said.

“I would rather have more guidance counselors who will steer young students away from drug use by encouraging them to succeed in academics, sports, the arts, and other wholesome activities,” he added.

Public elementary and high schools in the country severely lack registered guidance counselors (RGCs).

DepEd requires public and private elementary and high schools to hire one guidance counselor for every 500 students. The Philippines, however, only has 3,220 RGCs as of July 2017 since the first batch of licensure examinees in 2008.