PREVENTIVE DRUG EDUCATION PROGRAM

PENELOPE G. CORTEZ

To continuously intensify its existing efforts to provide Filipino learners with safe, nurturing, and drug-free environment, the Department of Education (DepEd) has issued its Preventive Drug Education Program (PDEP) Policy for Curriculum and Instruction.

The enhanced policy puts a premium on the creation of curricular platforms that shall ensure the integration of essential messages across all learning areas, and strengthen key competencies in the K to 12 Basic Education Pr ogr am.

It was also anchored on earlier issuance including DepEd Memorandum No. 200, s. 2016 (Strengthening the National Drug Education Program in Schools); DO No. 37, s. 2017 (Department of Education Drug-Free Workplace Policy); and DO No. 40, s. 2017 (Guidelines for the Conduct of Random Drug Testing for Public and Private Secondary Schools).

With the policy in place, PDEP shall be mainstreamed in all programs and projects of the Curriculum and Instruction, covering curriculum standards, curriculum delivery, learning resources, and assessment. While the policy’s guiding principles stated that learning outcomes shall be anchored on areas such as Health Education and Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (EsP) to ensure progression and continuity, it was also emphasized that preventive drug education concepts shall also be integrated with other learning areas.

Strategies for curriculum standards include the development of PDEP framework; curricular mapping; use of research and evidence-based practice; and ensuring minimum standards in curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular undertakings to supplement the academic curriculum.

Meanwhile, curriculum delivery involves the provision of developmentallyappropriate, culture-sensitive, and evidence-based program; use of interactive methods and structured sessions; provision of well-designed daily lesson plans; implementation of alternative delivery modes and flexible learning options; and conduct of regular education and information activities.

Field offices shall also be given technical assistance in the development, contextualization, localization, and indigenization of learning resources which shall be developmentally- and age-appropriate. For assessment, core messages and key concepts shall be included in the test development process.

Instruction on drug abuse prevention and control shall be integrated in the elementary, secondary and tertiary curricula of all public and private schools, whether general, technical, vocational or agro-industrial as well as in nonformal, informal and indigenous learning systems.

Such instructions shall include: (1) Adverse effects of the abuse and misuse of dangerous drugs on the person, the family, the school and the community; (2) Preventive measures against drug abuse; (3) Health, socio-cultural, psychological, legal and economic dimensions and implications of the drug problem; (4) Steps to take when intervention on behalf of a drug dependent needed, as well as the services available for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug dependents; and (5) 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 otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2001.

-oOoThe author is Teacher III at M. Nepomuceno Elementary School