TEACHERS TRAINING-UPC

Teachers act as a driving force in drug prevention. But in non-evidence-based prevention approaches, the teacher will be a collector of negative results or null results rather than a positive result in drug prevention. The officers of the Preventive Education and Training Division of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board obtained the UPC Credential for the implementation of effective prevention programs by the UPC Co-Curriculums that provided the Drugs Adversary Program (DAP) of the Colombo Plan in the last two years. Thus, a two-day teacher training program including many parts of the UPC - Co Curriculum was given to counseling teachers in the North West Province of Sri Lanka on the 28th and 29th of August 2024. How to implement drug related school environment policies and parenting skills promotion (early childhood, childhood, adolescence based), classroom management, social skills promotion that are implemented as preventive components of behavior shaping in contact with children based on internationally standardized principles took. The teacher training consisted of fully interactive small groups and extensive group activities, allowing the participating teachers to engage in scientific exploration of drug prevention in a very friendly environment.

The public sector implements the whole school system in Sri Lanka through two authorities. They are national level schools and provincial level schools. In addition to that, schools run by the private sector are called international schools in addition to the schools run by the public sector. A total of 4.5 million students are educated in this entire school system and 200 000 school teachers are engaged in teaching activities. The North West Provincial School System comes under the category of Provincial Schools. In this training, teachers from 50 schools in the North Western Province were involved and they were taught how to implement programs to change the behavior of children and how to enforce school policies in the school system. However, in addition to that, the importance of creating a preventive action leadership team in the school was also raised.

A convenient platform was created for trainees to share their ideas, attitudes, and knowledge. The Ethological Model, included in the UPC curriculum, provided the opportunity to study the Natural History of Substance Abuse and the use of evidence-based prevention approaches. The importance of curriculum-based prevention was also trained here.

When we look at the problem of drug use among school students in Sri Lanka, we can see a certain trend in the use of tobacco products and alcohol, which are legal drugs. Especially in the year 2023, there started to be reports of a strong increase in the use of methamphetamine, but the trend appeared to have been brought up by the media. However, it does not mean that there is no illegal drug use among school students. The use of ganja (marijuana) and other psychoactive drugs also shows an increase in urban and semi-urban schools and the weaknesses in the implementation of drug prevention environmental policies in schools as well as at the national level have also caused this. Another prominent feature of school children's drug use trends is the use of smokeless tobacco or keeping tobacco under the tongue is a growing trend. Additionally, school children in urban areas also use ecigarettes. This has resulted in students believing that e-cigarettes are a safer alternative to the harmful effects of tobacco.