Students’ Perceptions on Drug Abuse and Academic Performance in Computer Science and Allied Subjects

Given the high rate of drug abuse in society, this study investigates how much of its knowledge is available to secondary school students. Also evaluated is the perceived effect of drug abuse on their academic achievement in subjects such as Computer science and allied subjects. A questionnaire was developed to obtain the respondents’ opinion with 304 responses analyzed for this study. This research reveals that the majority (97.4%) of students know about drug abuse and the harm it causes to health. The most abused drugs by the students surveyed are Alcohol (5.9%), Tobacco (3.3%), and Marijuana (Indian hemp) (2.3%). The hypotheses tested showed a statistically significant (p<0.05) relationship between the type of school (public/private) a student attends and their tendency to abuse drugs, as well as how much knowledge is possessed by the students. We conclude that the academic performance of students can be negatively influenced by the abuse of drugs