Abstract:

The gross indiscipline among secondary school students in Nigeria is not only becoming alarming but getting out of hand. Excessive abuse of drug has been pinned down as one of the major factors responsible for this maladjusted behaviour. Incidents of drug addiction among male and female students in secondary schools have been reported in several studies. Several acts of indiscipline by students have led to abrupt shut down of schools. Cases of students that have been rusticated as a result of maladaptive behaviors in and out of schools are countless. This descriptive design study, therefore, examined the influence of drug abuse on acts of indiscipline in secondary schools from the perception of students. A total of 300 secondary students randomly selected from 10 purposively selected secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria participated in the study. A self-developed instrument tagged “Effects of Drug Abuse on Indiscipline Acts Scale” was employed to gather data. The test-retest reliability index of the instrument using Pearson Product Moment Correlation formula yielded 0.76. Two hypotheses were formulated to guide the conduct of the study and independent t-test statistics was used for data analysis. The findings revealed that there were no significant differences between male and female student’s perception (t = 3.22; df = 298; p >.005) as well as Christian and Muslim students’ perception (t = 4.53; df = 298; p >.005). Based on the outcome of the findings, it was recommended, among others, that school counsellors should intensify campaign against drug abuse using diverse techniques of information dissemination made available in professional counselling practice.

Keywords:

Drug abuse, indiscipline, secondary schools students, influence, counsellors.