Students’ Perceptions of the Causes and Influence of Drug Abuse on Their Learning Behavior in Bida Public Secondary Schools, Nigeria.

Abstract

Drug abuse among secondary school students in Nigeria has become a national concern because it has serious impacts on education and future leadership, innovations and human resources, as the youths are in their formative years of education, career development, social skills and identity formation. The study was to assess students’ perception of the causes and influence of drug abuse on their learning behaviour in government secondary schools in Bida, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to determine students’ perception of drugs and drug abuse; examine the perceived causes of drug abuse, extent of drug abuse among secondary school students; identify commonly abused drugs among secondary school students; and also to establish the consequences of drug abuse on their learning behaviours as perceived by students. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design. The instrument used was a self-developed questionnaire which was administered to one thousand four hundred and fifty two (1452) respondents (students) in six (6) public secondary schools in Bida, Niger state, Nigeria. A total number of nine hundred and sixty seven (967) representing 66.6% of the questionnaires were returned, analysed and reported. The study concluded that students had good thinking about drug abuse, some of the commonly abused drugs include codeine, rohypnol, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and heroin; and drug abuse among secondary school students have consequences on their learning behaviours. Therefore, it was recommended that students should be counselled regularly to solve the perceived causes of drugs abuse before getting out of hands, the school administrators should be aware of all the commonly abused drugs by these students to take appropriate measure to reduce their availability in the environment and communities .