An Update
A/Prof John Clark
School of Educational Studies, Massey University, Palmerston North
The September 2013 issue of the New Zealand Principal published my article on ‘Should we use cognitive enhancers to raise student achievement’. This was a controversial proposal and may have drawn the response, ‘No thanks’. In some ways, this would be a quite understandable reaction. But beware! The New Zealand Herald (13 June, 2014) reported the following under the title ‘Students use drugs to boost marks’: New Zealand university students are turning to potentially harmful drugs to get ahead in their studies, new research shows. In a survey of University of Auckland students, 6 per cent said they used ‘cognitive enhancer’ drugs to try to boost their concentration and exam marks. The most commonly reported drug used among the 400 students surveyed was Ritalin, which is prescribed for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) . . . When so-called cognitive enhancers are taken
occasionally and in low doses the risk to health is low. However, risks such as cardiovascular complaints and anxiety can increase if the drugs are taken without guidance and above therapeutic levels. Dr Russell (senior lecturer at the University of Auckland school of pharmacy) said he was concerned that ‘people will use cognitive enhancers to the point where they perceive a need for them and then use them in an almost addictive manner’. There are also a range of ethical questions surrounding the use of the drugs, he said, such as . . . Who should have access to them? Should it only be those who can afford them? Universities today; schools tomorrow? If cognitive enhancers do find their way into schools then principals perhaps should consider carefully whether they would adopt the same position as the university; “A spokesperson for the University of Auckland said it had no position about the use of cognitive enhancers by the student population”. I would say not. Hence my proposal to treat the issue seriously and offer a way forward in dealing with it.
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