XN000022-1995-10-20 — Page 17

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The working group, comprising representatives of the Narcotics Division and Education Department, secondary school principals and social workers, has put forward a series of improvements to the contents and the format of the school talk.

One of the changes is to invite schools to organise supplementary activities before and after the school talk.

"The working group is of the view that the anti-drug message can be enhanced and supplemented by activities conducted in a classroom setting where the teacher is familiar with the students," Mrs Kwok said, stressing that drug education was not a one-off activity.

"Guidelines and reference materials have been prepared for schools to implement these activities, such as group discussion and role-playing," she added.

The principal of Shun Tak Fraternal Association Tam Pak Yu College, Mr Tsui Hin-ching, said he was most impressed by the real-case approach of the videotapes in introducing the consequences of drug abuse.

"All the characters in the films can be found around youngsters themselves. It can make them believe that what happens in the film could have happened to them," he said after viewing the new videotapes.

"The film also introduces some refusal skills which are useful and practical to

students.

"I think the film will be more appealing to students as it avoids providing a large amount of information and the didactic teaching approach." Mr Tsui said.

All recommendations have been put into place starting this school year. So far, the Narcotics Division has received an enthusiastic response of 92 replies for arrangement of 152 talks.

"We try to entertain all requests which is a major step forward as previously, we visited secondary schools on a three-year cycle," Mrs Kwok said.

In 1994, the Narcotics Division's school talks team visited 94 secondary schools, giving 122 talks to about 54,000 students.

Similar talks are also being given to parents and primary six students.

End/Friday, October 20, 1995