The impact of drug and substance abuse leading to poor performance in primary and secondary schools in Geta zone in Nyandarua county.

Abstract

This research is on the impact of drug and substance abuse leading to poor performance in primary and secondary schools in Geta zone in Nyandarua County. The research was guided by the objectives of the study such as; To investigate reasons leading to learners in using drugs in Geta zone, To establish the effect brought up by usage of drug and substance in schools in Geta zone and To find out possible solutions to the learners problem in order to curb usage of drugs by the learners. The significance of this research is to help the stakeholders’ e.g. Government,teachers,parents,community and student to come up with strategies, employ field personnel to sensitize on drugs and create awareness to community, teachers and learner on drugs. The research also had literature review in order to identify more about the reasons of using drug among learners, effect brought up by drug and substance abuse in school and finding possible solutions to curb usage of drugs by learners. The research used the interpretation of Maslow hierarchy of needs, represented as pyramid with more basic needs at the bottom. The research used a survey design where a sample is selected from a large population and result are to be generalized and target population was just a representative population from which data was collected. The target population of this study was primary and secondary schools within Geta zone. In Geta zone in Nyandarua County we have 19 schools in total,240 teachers and 7650 pupils but the research interviewed two principals,20 students,2 headteachers,8 teachers,20 pupils and 8 parents amounting to 60 people. The research adopted the method for selecting study respondent and used a stratified random sampling method to select respondents from Geta zone in Nyandarua County. The research had a research piloting in order to assess the reliability and validity of the work and materials used. The research used the following instrument for the study; questionnaire as the main research tool for data collection and critically examined the coded data and made inferences using tables, percentages and presented data with the help of statistical computer software for better understanding, the research observed the ethical consideration e.g. volunteering, confidentiality and plagiarism