– Education Minister Shaik Baksh
Education Minister, Shaik Baksh, yesterday said that strong disciplinary action will be taken against teachers who are found guilty of smoking in school.
He issued the warning at a well attended programme convened at the Cyril Potter College of Education, Turkeyen Campus, to observe ‘World No Tobacco’ Day.
Baksh pointed out that his Ministry has also adopted a zero tolerance approach to sex, the use of drugs, weapons and alcohol in schools. He said efforts are being made to strengthen the reporting system in schools to promptly arrest and dissuade these activities within the school system.
The Minister urged teachers to be good ambassadors and strive to promote healthy life styles, positive attitudes, values and behaviours, in and out of their classrooms.
He said too that concerted attempts will be made to get the private schools on board the campaign to stop smoking in their immediate school environment.
He lauded the partnership between his Ministry and the Ministry of Health to tackle this issue as well as several other health related concerns.
In addition, Baksh underlined the importance of Health and Family Life Education in the schools’ curriculum and disclosed that the programme will be piloted in 30 schools from September.
Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, who also addressed the gathering of mostly teachers, said tobacco is the worst kind of serial killer ever known to mankind.
According to him, an estimated 100 millions have died from tobacco induced complications, and about one billion will be killed in the 21 century, if they do not quit using the drug.
“We have to say enough is enough. All smokers stop now, and all non-smokers do not start. We have to be agents of change,” the Minister declared, and appealed to teachers to join the campaign to discourage persons from using the drug.
Tobacco use leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer).
The World Health Organization estimates that tobacco caused 5.4 million deaths in 2004 and 100 million deaths over the course of the 20th century. Similarly, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes tobacco use as “the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature death worldwide.”
Rates of smoking have levelled off or declined in the developed world. Smoking rates in the United States have dropped by half from 1965 to 2006 falling from 42% to 20.8% in adults. In the developing world, tobacco consumption is rising by 3.4% per year.
During the programme, the college made a re-commitment to make its campus a “smoke free zone” and launch a body mass index campaign. A poster of a smoker’s body was also handed over to the college.