ASSESSMENT OF THE INFLUENCE AVAILABILITY OF SUBSTANCES AROUND SCHOOLS ON STUDENTS’ BEHAVIOR AND LEARNING: THE CASE OF BOLE COMMUNITY SECONDARY SCHOOL

Abstract

This research is about how availability of substance around school affects students to abuse substance and how substance abuse affects their learning. It is conducted on Bole Community secondary school. The pupose of the reserach is to investigate the influence of the availability of substance around school on the behavior of students to abuse substance and how substance abuse affects learning. It is a descriptive and explorative research and adopts mixed research methods. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used concurrently suring data collection and analysis. The findings from the quantitative and qualitative data are presented as the quantitative reinforcing the qualitative results. Survey and interview methods are used to collect primary data. Secondary data and observation are also used to complement the survey and interview data. Sample for the survey is selected using stratified randmon sampling while sample for the interview is selected using purposive sampling. A total of 78 students (constituting 10%) are selected as survey respondents and 6 teachers &1 school counselor from the school and 2 supervisors from Bole sub-city Education Office are selected as interview informants. Semi-closed questionnaire and semi-structured interview checklists are used to collect survey and interview data consequetively. All survey respondents completed the questionnaire (100%), except for sporadic non-responses to specific questions of the questionnaire. To ensure validity of survey findings, non- responses having signifant numbers have been crossechecked againt control questions. All interview informants also completed the interview sessions and shared their views. Findings are analyzed and presented using figures and texts. The findings of the research indicated a significant number of students at Bole Community secondary school using substance; khat, cigarette, cannabis, alcohol and shisha are the most abused substances and used in combination. Most students initiated substance at the age of 15 years. It is the development stages during which time adolescents’ internal derive to define self and experiment their social environment hightens. The findings indicate that substances are easily available in and around the school through the businesses and social network having significant influence on the behavior of students to abuse substances. Also lack of school based leisure time social activities is indicated to push students to abuse substances. Substance abuse is indicated to affect learning (lowering grade achievements, compromising the interest to learn and facing difficulty to adapt to school behavior stadards. Finally, the research recommends policy, practice and research actions that enable to facilitate substance free school environment which promotes better learning outcomes.