Özet:

The issue of drug and substance abuse is a major headache to societies and authorities around the world. It remains a major social problem world over. No nation has been spared from the devastating problem caused by drug and substance abuse. In Kenya for instance, there is indiscriminate use, abuse and dependence on various types of drugs in secondary schools creating a concern for everybody. Occurrence and recurrence of the vice in schools and related indiscipline poses doubt about the effectiveness of guidance and counselling which has been advocated for in control of the vice. Collaboration among stakeholders have been championed for effective control of the vice. The purpose of this study therefore was to establish the effectiveness of principals-stakeholders collaboration in guidance and counselling for successful control of drug abuse among students. Transformational Leadership theory was adopted in this study which employed descriptive survey design. Samples  of 35 principals and 35 heads of guidance and counselling departments were selected using proportionate, stratified and simple random sampling tehniques. The data was analyzed using frequencies and percentages (descriptive statistics). The findings revealed that miraa(khat), alcohol and cigarettes were the most prevalent drugs abused; cocaine, heroine and valium were the least prevalent; principals collaborated with religious organizations, external counsellors, teachers, parents, other schools, peer counsellors, school management, education officers and general hospitals in management of drug abuse through guidance and counselling. Areas of collaboration included provison of guidance and counselling services , financial and material support, pastoral and spiritual support, medical support and training of teacher  counsellors. Guidance and counselling was overwhelmingly effective in management of drug abuse. Principals constraints revolved around lack of trained, committed and supportive teacher counsellors and insufficient financial, human and material resources. The recommendations include the following: expansion of spheres of principals’ collaboration with diverse stakeholders in guidance and counselling by increasing school-community interactions through workshops, conferences and seminars; provision of further and inservice training to principals and teacher counsellors in guidance and counselling; national and county governments should provide financial, human and material support to the school guidance and counselling programme; increase public sensitization campaigns to enlighten everyone on the gravity, causes and effects of drug abuse; and students should be encouraged to open up about issues affecting them such as drug abuse so that they can receive the the guidance and counselling help.

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