Relationship between implementation of safety standards and guidelines for drug and substance abuse, and student safety in Public mixed boarding secondary schools in Kenya

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to find out the relationship between implementation of Safety Standards and Guidelines for Drug and Substance Abuse and student safety in public mixed boarding secondary schools in Nakuru County, Kenya. The target population was made up of 16 principals, 18 deputy principals and 2130 Form 4 students drawn from all 16 public mixed boarding secondary schools in Nakuru County, Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The sample size for students comprised of 327 Form 4 students. A census approach was used whereby, all the 16 principals and 18 deputy principals were used for the study. The population of the study was clustered into 9 sub counties. Stratified sampling technique was used to categorize the population into three strata namely principals, deputy principals and Form 4 students. The principals and deputy principals were selected using purposive sampling technique, while the students were selected using simple random sampling technique.  Data from students was collected using questionnaires and observation checklist, while that from principals and deputy principals was collected using interview schedules. Prior to use, the instruments were subjected to validity checks with the help of university supervisors and reliability tests guided by the 0.7 Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Coefficient level. Data analysis was done using tools in the SPSS version 22. Analysis involved computation of descriptive statistics: frequencies and percentages, and inferential statistics: Pearson Correlation and Regression coefficients. The data was then presented in tables and textually.