The Influence of Primary School Pupil's Knowledge of Agriculture on Enviromental Conservation in Akithii Division of Nyambene District, Kenya

Abstract

Environmental education is one way of developing an awareness of the environment. Its protection and an opportunity of preventing long-term environmental degradation. Environmental degradation and household garbage are of significance concern in Akithii division. The problem would be addressed through pupils' knowledge of agriculture on environmental conservation, which promotes intellectual skills, and knowledge to prevent the long-term environmental degradation. The study was aimed at establishing the influence of primary school pupils" knowledge of agriculture on environmental conservation, and how the knowledge gained by pupils' has been applied in the community for environmental conservation. The study took place in Akithii division of Nyambene District, Kenya. The study used an ex-post-facto research design of correlational nature. The target population was made of all standard seven primary school pupils' and all households in the division. The study used 120 pupils' from 6 schools and heads of their households from the community. Purposive sampling was used to select the locations while schools were randomly selected. Simple random sampling was used to select 20 pupils' in standard 7 in each primary school who were then followed to their households. The research used questionnaires as instruments for data collection from the household heads and knowledge test for the pupils'. The descriptive statistics used included percentages, means and standard deviation. The inferential statistics used included one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Pearson• s product moment correlation coefficient. The hypotheses were tested at a = 0.05 significance level. The results of the study showed that the primary school pupils' gained knowledge from learning agriculture in primary school and that the pupils• practiced environmental conservation in their respective communities. There is a significance difference in level of pupils' knowledge of agriculture related to environmental conservation. There is also a significant difference in level of environmental conservation in different communities and in pupils' involvement in the environmental conservation practices. The results also indicated no relationship between pupils• knowledge of agriculture and environmental conservation and no relationship between pupils' involvement in environmental conservation and levels of environmental conservation in the communities. The findings of the study may to help the Ministry of Education Science and Technology to determine the effectiveness of integrating environmental education in primary school science and agriculture syllabus.