Daring to drop D.A.R.E Available to Purchase

Describes how as part of the 1995/6 GEST 19b innovative drugs education programme, Kirklees Education Advisory Service established a comparative project involving two drugs education programmes for Years 5 and 6 in 31 primary schools. The two programmes, D.A.R.E. and Parents as Educators (PAE), were evaluated against each other and against four control schools. The results strongly suggest that in the short term PAE is more effective in achieving key health education objectives than D.A.R.E. Suggests that in the search for appropriate and effective drugs education, more weight should be given to what is already known about the effects of various forms of smoking education and that health and education authorities should consider the role of “direct provision” in supporting the teacher in the classroom.