Assessing the Level of Environmental Awareness of Non-Science Students of Colleges of Education in Rivers State

Abstract

Environmental awareness is the first step towards the achievement of environmental literacy. The pivot of
any educational system is the teacher. Teachers are the most crucial factors in any educational system and
one of the goals of the teacher education is to provide teachers with the intellectual and professional
background adequate for their assignments to changing situation. These teachers are products of teacher
education institutions. The non science students outnumber the science students in colleges of education
and they graduate to take up teaching opportunities and form greater part of the teaching work force at
the primary and junior secondary schools. These non science students at graduation teach the primary
science subjects therefore there is a need to know their environmental content readiness to handle primary
science subject. Three research questions were postulated and analysed using percentages. The implication
of the finding was that non science students’ environmental awareness is low. It was recommended among
others that a planned environmental education curriculum be made compulsory as general studies in
colleges of education.