Trained Climate Change Educators: Are Secondary School Pupils Getting Quality Climate Change Education? Views from Teachers and Pupils in Lusaka, Zambia

Abstract

Zambia like many other countries has not been spared from the destructive impacts of climate change. Climate change awareness creation is pivotal to adaptation and mitigation strategies. Effective dissemination of knowledge among the citizens during formal school years and later on in teacher training programs is crucial to that end. This paper investigates the quality of climate change education that students receive in secondary schools as well as the adequacy of the content taught from the teachers’ and pupils’ perspectives. It further investigated teachers’ and pupils’ opinions on the effects of embracing compulsory climate change education in secondary schools and teacher training colleges and universities. It is based on responses from secondary school students and teachers in Lusaka District. A descriptive survey design utilizing a structured questionnaire was administered to 152 randomly selected respondents drawn from 8 secondary schools within Lusaka. Data analysis involved chi-square tests and thematic analysis of respondents’ qualitative responses. Results also show that the level of climate change knowledge among secondary school teachers in Lusaka was not significantly low (χ2 = 9.488, n = 152, df = 4). Factors such as tertiary level qualification and teaching subject combination emerged as some of the major reasons for varying degrees of climate change knowledge among teachers and pupils respectively. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education should undertake climate change capacity building among teachers through the introduction of compulsory climate change training programs for all teachers at the college or university level, as well as comprehensive and compulsory climate change subject training at secondary school. Curriculum formulation agencies such Curriculum Development Centre and the Ministry of Education should work with teachers and university lecturers to come up with a detailed but easy-to-understand climate change curriculum content.