TEMPORAL PATTERN OF DRUG MISUSE AMONGST STUDENTS OF LANGTANG NORTH: IMPLICATION ON SUSTAINABLE QUALITY TEACHER EDUCATION

Abstract

This study determined the temporal pattern of drug misuse amongst students of Langtang North: Implication on sustainable quality teacher education. Descriptive survey research design was employed for the study. The population of the study comprised all 33 secondary schools with 15040 students in Langtang North LGA. Seven hundred and fifty-two secondary school students constituted the sample for the study. The instrument for the study was a selfdeveloped 6 items temporal pattern of drug misuse questionnaire (TePaDMiQ) validated by five experts. The data collected was analysed using percentages, means and Chi square statistics; while the hypothesis was tested at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that overall, a slightly higher proportion of the students’ moderately misused drugs in the evenings, (48%), mornings, (46.6%), festive periods, (38.6%), at weekends, (37.9%), during dry (35.4%), and rainy seasons, (34.2%). The Table further revealed a slightly higher proportion of the students’ highly misused drugs by borrowing friend’s prescription drugs to treat themselves when they had similar symptoms as those of others in the evening, (65.1%), followed by in the mornings, (55.5%), weekends, (52.6%), during festive periods, (44.8%), dry, (32.3%), and rainy seasons,(20.8%).Furthermore, the study revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in the misuse of drugs by students in the mornings, evenings, at weekends, during festive periods, rainy and dry seasons. The study concluded by recommending that since drug misuse is a social problem, which has deleterious effects on society if not properly managed; there should be an agency of government in addition to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency that should be concerned with conducting researches from time to time to determine the extent of the problem so that appropriate measures can be taken to forestall it thereby having a drug free society.

Keywords: Temporal pattern, drug misuse, students, teacher education