Not your typical classroom courses right?
Wrong!
At Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic (SJPP), these two courses now form part of the tertiary institution's curriculum.
From August this year, it became mandatory for every student at SJPP to take the courses which are worth two credits each.
Teachers there are so serious that they have determined students can only graduate from that school once they have completed the required hours for the courses.
The man behind this move is guidance officer Morris Blenman, who recognised the need for students to become more exposed to these societal ills, and equipped with the tools and skills to guard themselves against them.
"The main objective is to provide the students with information that will help to change their behaviours and attitudes. We see it as a worthwhile investment," he said.
"If students don't meet the requirements, they can't pass," he stressed.
Blenman said that in previous years students were exposed to a two-hour seminar which dealt with HIV/AIDS and substance abuse.
"We realised this wasn't enough and we needed to have more exposure," he said while speaking from his office at SJPP on Wednesday morning.
So, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, these two courses were built into the school's curriculum. He said they worked with the Ministry of Health and the National Council on Substance Abuse (NCSA) to fine-tune the syllabus for both courses. Blenman worked closely with coordinators Sade Leon-Slinger (HIV/AIDS Awareness) and Ishmael Morris (Drug Awareness and Substance Abuse).
To accommodate this expanded syllabus for students, school hours had to be extended and that meant getting up earlier for classes.
Students have the option of doing the courses from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. or from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., instead of fitting them in the normal 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. school day.
"Because the timetable for students was so packed, we had to get human resource personnel who would be flexible as well to teach during these hours," he further explained.
Blenman, who has been at the Polyclinic for 15 years, said they made sure to target all first year students – that way, they could capture every student passing through their gates.
In the Drug Awareness and Substance Abuse classes, some of the areas addressed in this course are the extent of the problem in Barbados, drug dependence, the use of alcohol, cocaine and its prevalence and the lifestyles of crack addiction.
In the HIV/AIDS awareness course, the syllabus focuses on HIV/AIDS – The Virus; Protection And Prevention and HIV/AIDS Statistics and Testing.
Students learn how to protect themselves against others, how to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS and how to negotiate issues about sex within relationships. In addition, they find out about access to care, treatment and support.
Students Rogie Prescott and Nadia Mascoll are part of the new intake into the HIV/AIDS Awareness course.
Rogie, 16, who readily confesses that he proudly practises abstinence, admits the information coming out of the course is "a little scary".
"There is so much information and it is all real," he said.
He said the course would help him to make the right choices when that time came. "I will know which moves to make and which are not necessary and I will know how to protect myself and my partner," he said confidently.
Nadia is also enjoying the course, expressing her own view that young people were not taking this epidemic seriously.
"They are just going out and living life as if it is alright to do these things," she said.
She too is secure in having the knowledge of how to protect herself and others.
Rogie is hoping to pass on the information to other young people.
Nadia, a caregiver in training, is being prepared to handle any and every situation.
Both say their eyes are now opened, now that they have sat on this course.
And they both add with a grin that they had no problem getting up earlier to be at school.