By: Ina Hernando Malipot
At least 60,000 junior and senior high school students will undergo random drug testing starting this school year, the Department of Education said.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones said that DepEd will be using the sampling scheme to be able to “capture the picture of drug situation among our learners” as well as for teachers and other personnel of the department.
“Although it’s random drug sampling, it’s not that easy because we have to decide on the size of the sample,” Briones said.
“We’re not testing all 27 million students, we are looking at around 60,000 learners to undergo drug testing to get an idea the prevalence of illegal drug use among them,” she said.
Conducting actual drug test, she said, is the “only way to find out the prevalence” of illegal drug use among teachers and learners.
Briones said that it took a while before the DepEd finalized the guidelines and policies for the drug testing of students, teachers, and non-teaching personnel after it was announced last year. “It took so long because we have to take all possible care in crafting of this policy.”
From September to October, DepEd personnel from the central and regional offices will undergo drug testing. Briones said that she will take a drug test herself.
