14 -
New package of drug education talks for secondary schools
Teenage students will find out the truth about the harmful effects of drugs from real life cases featured in two new sets of videotapes and slides.
Produced for secondary students, the videos/slides form a major part of a 45- minute drug education talk conducted by the Narcotics Division, which also includes an introduction and a question session.
Revision of the audio visual aids, to replace a slide show which had been in use since 1989, are among the recommendations made by a working group set up in August 1994 to review and identify improvements to the school talks.
The chairman of the working group, Principal Assistant Secretary for Security (Narcotics), Mrs Sarah Kwok, said the revised school talks had avoided the didactic teaching approach and placed an emphasis on real life situation to create an impact on students.
"The videos feature the true revelation of a young ex-drug addict and stories adapted from real cases. We want to show the students what it is like after they become hooked on drugs, without exaggerating or underplaying it.
"All the cast in the videos are teenagers who speak the same language as their peers. In this way, we hope to get the message to students more easily," she said,
Mrs Kwok added that the revision also divided the talk into two versions for senior and junior forms respectively to address their different needs.
The video for the junior forms, entitled "My turn to have a say", is a 10-minute drama featuring a student who refuses to experiment with drugs after witnessing how drug misuse ruins the lives of his friends.
The version for the senior forms, "I have regrets to youth", provides stimuli to students to reflect over the issue by depicting four episodes, each adapted from a real story, to illustrate the reasons for taking drugs by youngsters and the harmful effects.
Both videos, prepared in collaboration with the Information Services Department, are also intertwined with interviews with a psychiatrist and a social
worker.