Substance use and abuse continue to be a public health issue. Given the responsibility to protect the youth from substance use, an educational program on substance use and abuse was developed. This descriptive, cross-sectional study was designed to evaluate the implementation of that program for junior high school students. This study was done in selected public schools in Zamboanga City, where a total of 1,947 students and 31 teachers were included. A self-administered questionnaire was prepared for students and teachers. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means, and percentage were utilized. Results showed that only 29% of teachers fully implemented the educational program in terms of the required schedule, number of sessions and minutes per session, 58.1% partially implemented the program, and 12.9% poorly implemented the program. A high proportion (83.9%) of teachers fully adhered (100%) to the learning competencies of the program while the remaining 16.1% partially adhered (75-99%) to the learning competencies of the program. In addition, all teachers (100%) had a positive attitude regarding the program. Despite the efforts to address substance use and abuse, there were still a considerable number of students engaged in smoking (24.9%), alcoholic beverage drinking (41.1%) and illicit drug use (1.6%). In addition, only 40.8% of the students were taught about smoking and alcohol and only 34.7% of the students were taught about illicit drugs. Among those who were taught, majority (70%) of them were satisfied with the educational program. The facilitating factors to the implementation of the educational program among teachers were training, policy, current situation on substance use, support, and resources. The barriers to the implementation of the educational program among teachers were lack of training and seminars, conflict with extracurricular activities, lack of time, students’ absences, inadequate resources, and no budget allocation. Development of a more comprehensive program with representatives from different populations, training or workshops for teachers, and regular and strict monitoring of educational program implementation is hereby recommended.

Keyword: Educational program Substance use and abuse Junior high school students