Consumer VOICE, New Delhi and National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE-India) with support of Goa Education Development Corporation, Govt of Goa organised a sensitisation workshop on “Tobacco and Substance Abuse”.
_The workshop was attended by 75 for Counsellors and 18 Supervisors of the corporation, Dr Salkar, President NOTE (India) explained the participants on various types of substance abuse and its ill effects, the focus of the workshop was on developing skills for early identification of substance abuse in youth, the Counsellors appointed by Goa Education Development Corporation work with Secondary and Higher Secondary students from schools across the state of Goa and play a vital role in assessment of youth health.
Shri. Govind B. Parvatkar, Chairman, Goa Education Development Corporation appreciated the efforts taken by NOTE(India) and Dr. Salkar for works in field of anti-tobacco and substance abuse, he added that todays session will enrich the knowledge of the Counsellors and help them sensitise the youth of the state on the bad impact of tobacco and substance abuse.
The workshop ended with an interactive session in which the participants were engaged in filling up a live google form to access information from Counseller point of view on substance abuse, interestingly the outcomes of the activity were as follows.
About 58% of the counsellors are of the opinion that students are very likely to be involved in Tobacco / Drug / Alcohol abuse.
61% participants disagree that Goan youth are not easily affected by Tobacco / Drug / Alcohol abuse.
42% counsellors agree that students do not know the bad impact of Tobacco / Drug / Alcohol abuse.
50% of the counsellors agree that Drug addict students are more likely to commit crimes.
A whopping 68 % participants agreed that the efforts made by the teacher to prevent the use of tobacco, drugs and other substance abuse are in vain because the influence of surrogate advertising and peer pressure.
70% counsellors opined that Drugs and substance abuse should be made part of curriculum in educational institutes.
