THE Davao City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (CADAC) yesterday formally launched the Drug Education modules for Grades 4-12 students and Alternative Learning System (ALS) learners which will be integrated in the curriculum of the coming school year.
Officials of Cadac: Department of Education Schools Division Office of Davao City, Department of Health Region 11, and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and city government officials gathered yesterday at Royal Mandaya Hotel for the launch of the modules jointly crafted by the agencies in the past six months.
The curriculum contains topics on Science of Addiction; Physiology and Pharmacology; Co-occuring Disorders, Treatment and Management, Community Development, and the Role of the Higher Education Institutions in Davao City's Tabangan Atong Reformists Aron Naay Asenso (Tara Na) program and the Sustainability of the Community Based Recovery Support System (CBRAP).
These modules are the output of the writeshop funded by the Health Education and Promotions Office of the Mental Health Program of the Department of Health intended to enhance the learning competencies of the Grades 4-12 last October 2017.
PDEA and Cadac provided the topics of that will be integrated in the curricula.
Davao city Mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio, represented by Davao City Administrator lawyer Zuleika Lopez, lauded the release of the modules saying that it is a breakthrough.
"The Cadac modules are a promising breakthrough consistent to the pursuit of the local government especially to the pursuit of the local government specifically Davao City against drugs," Lopez said.
As it is the first of its kind in the country, Lopez underscored that the this modules puts Davao City on the lead in pushing efforts in supporting the national government's advocacy to fight illegal drugs.
"I am happy to note that this will be available in the Deparment of Education's portal and website for all schools across the country to incorporate to their syllabus," she said.
Lopez also thanked the individuals evaluators, illustrators, for all the drug instructional materials for the program.
DepEd-Davao Division Learning Management and Development System head Aries Juanillo in a press conference yesterday said that they are confident that the teachers are capable of teaching the module since it has gone through pilot testing.
"We conducted the pilot testing sometime last January. It came out that based on pilot testing that these competencies are all aligned in our DepEd curriculum," he said.
Rhiza T. Erbina, Master Teacher 2, and Writer/Evaluator of the module also attested to the rigorous process they have undergone to complete the module.
"This module has gone through rigid process we have prepared this for more than six months from the input of our doctors, down to the writeshop, to the evaluation, finalization, pilot testing and the editing again, until we have come to this point," she said.
Erbina was among the 30 writers and evaluators who crafted the modules.