Tackling children's binge drinking

Parents and educators play an important role in educating children on the negative effects of drugs and alcohol, particularly binge drinking, which has become a problem among young people.

Binge drinking, or 'drinking to get drunk', was discussed yesterday during L-Iskola Tghodd (Schooling Matters) - a seminar for parents, school councils and parent teacher associations.

The seminar was held at the Dolmen Hotel Resort in Bugibba and organised by Sedqa in collaboration with the Association of School Councils and the Association of Parents of Children in Church Schools.

The aim was to raise awareness about the importance of the role played by parents and educators in drug and alcohol education in primary schools.

Frans Borg, Permanent Secretary at the Education Ministry, who spoke during the seminar, said that under-age binge drinking was a problem that had to be addressed. He referred to the most recent European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (Espad) held in 2003 among 16-year-olds in 35 countries.

Results for Malta showed that only 6.4 per cent of 16-year-olds had never drunk alcohol, whereas 51.1 per cent of the population reported taking alcohol on 20 or more occasions in their lives.

Sedqa's primary prevention division's manager, Paul Pace, affirmed that alcohol has become the major substance of abuse among young Maltese people but the agency is working on its strategy of strengthening its prevention programmes and the dissemination of information in schools.

The agency's latest initiative in supporting this prevention programme is the publication of an information leaflet.