Transition year students at Rice College in Ennis, Co Clare, are breathing new life into the debate about how second-level schools should handle drug education. They are running a programme entitled Substance Abuse and Drug Rehabilitation which has been devised by staff members John Burns and Catherine Molyneaux.

The programme involves Transition Year students teaching first-years the facts about drug use. They use a variety of literature from the Ennis Drug Squad and the Department of Health. "The earlier educational videos issued by the Department of Health were rubbish but some of the recent ones are OK," according to Burns, a religious teacher at the school.

The 19 boys involved in the programme have guest lecturers in on Wednesdays before taking the first-years for a class period every Friday. They plan what they will cover, divide into four groups and give a series of talks, followed by a question-and-answer session.

"In the classes they cover substance awareness, its short and long-term effects and how it affects relationships in the abusers family and peer group," according to Burns. They also deal with the rehabilitation of drug users.

"In my 15 years in teaching I've never seen anything like it," says Geraldine Simmie, the Transition Year Support Team member for Galway and Clare. "It's a totally enjoyable experience for everybody involved." She makes much of the fact that the first-years are taught by their peers and so are more inclined to listen.

Classes are videoed by the students and later evaluated for effectiveness. "Now we know how tiring it is to be a teacher," according to the students who point out how much work they have to put into this one class.

The first-years will undergo a written evaluation in May to see how much they benefit from the class. Burns readily concedes that while some first-years see the class as a welcome "doss" on a Friday, most take it seriously.

What the organisers see as the real strength of the programme is its emphasis on presenting the unvarnished facts without the sort of value judgments and sermonising which usually accompany drug education. "The students pass on only the bare facts and some case studies," says Burns. "We want to give them the mental attitude to be able to refuse drugs."

The Transition Year students benefit enormously from the classes. "They learn interpersonal skills and begin to feel trusted by members and staff," he says.

Rice College has a somewhat unusual policy on drug users it discovers among its own pupils. Whereas most schools automatically react with the expulsion of the pupils to counteract the panic of parents, Burns espouses another view. "When the drug user is expelled he or she becomes a martyr among the students," he says. "We prefer to help them get in touch with the relevant services and support them in getting off drugs." This approach is winning support and they have already been contacted by the Christian Brothers with a view to helping them set up a drug policy based on support and compassion.

IT'S not all good news. The Department of Education provides no financial support for the class with the result that it tends to encroach on the religion class. "In some of the schools I visit resources are appalling," says Geraldine Simmie. "Despite this great creativity is displayed in the programmes they run."

John Burns attributes the success of the programme to the dedication of those involved in carrying it out: "The time made by the students to give these classes, with the full backing of the staff and the parents has got it off the ground and made it work."