Increasingly fewer students in secondary schools are using, dealing or in possession of drugs. Education Minister Marja van Bijsterveldt gave the figures in a letter to MPs on Tuesday.

Recent research commissioned by the education ministry indicates that just three percent of secondary school students admitted taking drugs to school last year. Although the figure was the same as 2008, Ms Van Bijsterveld says the “general trend is down” in the use, possession and sale of drugs in schools.

Just 13 percent of students said they had noticed drugs being sold at school last year. In 2008, the figure was 20 percent and in 2006, it was 39 percent.

About 38 percent said they knew of drugs being used at school last year by other students. In 2008, the figure was 44 percent while two years earlier, it was 68 percent.

The research showed that drugs use in primary schools was rare.

(mw/rk)

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