VELLORE: With Tamil Nadu witnessing several cases of school students turning up to classes or loitering in public in an inebriated state, the School Education Department has finally woken up to the need for weaning students from all forms of addiction. The School Education Director is learnt to have asked Chief Education Officers to instruct headmasters of schools to monitor and identify students who are addicted to “bad habits” and take steps to counsel them.
Within the past six months at least four cases of students getting high on liquor have been reported in the State. While four Class XI students were expelled from a school in Namakkal, in Coimbatore, a schoolgirl was found creating a ruckus on a busy road in an inebriated state. Earlier, a Class XII boy was found sloshed on the road in central Tamil Nadu.
Political leaders who have intensified their campaign seeking prohibition have also periodically referred to these incidents to justify their protests.
“During meetings held recently with the Director, we have been instructed to take steps to identify students who are hooked to liquor and substance abuse and take measures to counsel and rehabilitate them,” a Chief Education Officer (CEO) of a district in north Tamil Nadu told Express on Tuesday. “Students addicted to liquor are a serious cause for concern. There has been a rise in such cases. We have begun an exercise to talk them out of the habit,” said another CEO, adding that mobile counselling facility is being used to reach out to them.