Chronicle Editor
Blessing Karubwa, Chronicle Reporter
GOVERNMENT has been urged to retrain school counsellors so that they can be in a position to address the drug abuse menace affecting youths, including school children.
Addressing youths at Bazaar Open Ground in Nguboyenja suburb in Bulawayo on Thursday during belated Youth Day commemorations Vice President of Zimbabwe National Junior Parliament, Menzimuhle Ncube, said the escalating problems of drug and substance abuse, early pregnancies and early marriages show that children do not have proper counsellors in schools.
“We are urging the Government to retrain counsellors in schools. That is a legitimate concern that we have had for quite a long time about Guidance and Counselling teachers. Most schools also do not have guidance and counselling teachers or in instances where they have them the teachers are not well equipped to do their jobs,” he said.
“There are a lot of complaints from learners who say that they cannot speak about the problems they have with these counsellors because they do not play their role well enough. So, it is clear that even in places that they exist, these counsellors are often ill prepared for the problems the youth face,” said Ncube, an Advanced level pupil at St Columbus High School in Bulawayo.
He said according to the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Art and Recreation about 57 percent of youths in the country are abusing drugs.
Ncube said a number of interventions are being introduced to try and come up with solutions that can help youth stay away from drugs.
“Our current goal is on awareness campaigns to educate the youths to stay away from drugs and substance abuse.
We are working with a number of stakeholders to make sure that children are encouraged in the first place to not get into drugs and substance abuse. Some of our programs target families to make sure that youths are also taught at home about the dangers of drugs so that they do not fall to peer pressure of taking drugs,” said Ncube.
An A-Level learner who attended the function told Chronicle that guidance and counselling lessons are rarely conducted at schools.
He said anti-drug abuse campaigns should be conducted throughout the city so that all youths are reached with information.
“We want such activities as they really help us. At our schools we do not usually get such lessons. In every three youths, one of them takes drugs so the world is now in danger if such campaigns are not taken seriously. Drug traffickers can influence even the little ones who are not yet able to choose what they want in life,” he said. – @ BlehKarubwa
Online Reporter