SCHOOLS SNUB PLAN FOR DRUG TESTING

A PLAN to trial random drug testing at Kent schools has been abandoned
after it emerged that not a single secondary school was willing to
participate.

Kent was chosen 18 months ago by the Government to trial random drug
testing among pupils in an initiative which had the support of the
then Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The county's involvement as the first education authority in the
country to conduct a trial of random drug-testing came about through
the success of a testing programme that was piloted at Faversham's
Abbey School. However, the school, under a new head teacher, has
abandoned random drug tests.

Kent County Council says the pilot scheme it was to be leading never
got off the ground.

The council said the Government was not willing to give schools the
money they needed to introduce tests, although it had agreed to pay
for an evaluation of the results.

In a statement, KCC said: "This proved a barrier to recruiting schools
to participate as they would have had to move funding from other areas
of activity.

"Nationally, there was a failure to recruit the requisite number of
schools, so the pilot did not go ahead."

The initiative's demise was described as disappointing by Peter
Walker, the former head teacher of the Abbey School.

Now retired, he was appointed to act as an advisor to the Government
to oversee the pilot scheme and remains convinced that random testing
works.

He said that while schools publicly blamed costs and legal concerns,
they were privately worried about being seen as having a problem if
they brought in testing.

"The reality is that every school has some kind of drug
problem.

"National figures show that 40 per cent of children have tried drugs
before they are 15.

"The problem is the Government spends a lot of money when people
already have a problem but does not spend nearly enough on prevention,
which is much more effective," he said.

Cllr Chris Wells, KCC's cabinet member for education, said: "It is a
missed opportunity because it could have helped individual children
who might need additional support before they tamper with drugs.

"Having said that, there are enormous privacy issues with this and
what testing means for the relationship between teachers and pupils."

In a statement, the Department for Children, Schools and Families,
said it was reviewing the status of random drug testing in schools.