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Punjab to Launch Statewide Drug Prevention Curriculum in Schools on August 1

It aims to tackle the state’s youth drug crisis by integrating evidence-based prevention education into the school curriculum.

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The Punjab government will roll out a drug prevention curriculum for students of Classes IX to XII in all government schools from August 1 as part of the 3rd phase of the ongoing “Yudh Nashian Virudh” drive, announced school education minister Harjot Singh Bains. (HT File)
Punjab School Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains.

Overview

  • Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann will inaugurate the programme at Arniwala in Fazilka district on Friday.
  • Nobel Laureate Prof Abhijit Banerjee’s J-PAL South Asia designed the curriculum and validated it through randomised trials in 78 government schools in Amritsar and Tarn Taran.
  • The course features fortnightly 35-minute sessions over 27 weeks with documentaries, quizzes, posters and interactive activities focused on myth-busting, refusal strategies and resisting peer pressure.
  • More than 6,500 teachers have been trained to deliver the programme across 3,658 government schools, empowering roughly 800,000 students in Classes IX–XII.
  • Trial outcomes showed addiction risk awareness rose to 90 percent among participants versus 69 percent in the control group and belief that willpower alone could overcome addiction fell from 50 percent to 20 percent.