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By Shahd Alhamdan
JEDDAH — “Exams Without Drugs” is an online campaign aiming to enhance society’s awareness about drugs dealers who exploit students during the exams season.
The campaign, which has been running for the fifth year now, has succeeded in grabbing society’s attention and support with many parents advocating its continuation.
The online campaign warns parents against letting their children stay for a long time outside the schools or classrooms after finishing the exams so that they do not come in contact with bad influences and peer pressure that forces them to smoke cigarettes or try drugs, including amphetamine pills.
Informative posts on social media provide members of society with numbers of contacts to call if their children became victims of influences. There are also guidelines about what a child should do in situations when anyone asks him to use drugs.
Parents believe that such a campaign will help educate not only students but also parents since they will understand how to enlighten their children in the run-up to and during exams about dealing with bad influences.
Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Amira Kattan, a Saudi woman working in the government sector and a mother of three, explained that it is an excellent campaign. She said the campaign so essential and important that it should not be confined to a certain season in the year, but should run throughout the year.
She said parents’ love and attention could help their children get rid of bad friends and unhealthy habits. Parents should also encourage children develop their skills and make them focus on sports.
Elizabeth Fiano, a mother of 11, said, “Parents definitely would benefit from being informed about how to protect their children from bad influences. However, as children get older this can be difficult.
“I think parents have to be very careful of the ‘hidden curriculums’ in school, which are the things that a child learns at school beyond the academics. These can have a very strong influence on a child.”
Suhaib Tariq, purchasing manager in one of the private companies, explained that the habit of using drugs during exams is expanding because parents are not aware of who their children are making friends with and they are not following up with their children’s daily lives.
“Many people are sending me posts through WhatsApp and Instagram. I suggest that the campaign starts at least two weeks before the exams start since it is the preparation period for students,” he said.
Tariq added that changing and developing the posts would help in the success of the campaign since most of the posts are either old, repetitive or not attractive. They contain images of drugs and lyrics about death, which alienate many people and they stop reading the posts.
© The Saudi Gazette 2017
