Assessment of Environment Awareness, Knowledge and Skills of B.Ed Teacher Students of the ODL System: A Case Study of IGNOU Regional Centre Patna

Abstract

This study seeks to study the level of awareness, sensitivity, attitude and concern of teachers of various schools towards environment, who are pursuing B.Ed form IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) and enrolled at Regional Centre Patna over the previous two years (2012 and 2013). // Ensuring environmental sustainability is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals established by the UN at the Millennium Summit where all the member states agreed to achieve these goals by the year 2015. Among other targets set to achieve the goal, one is, to integrate the principles of sustainable development in the policies and programmes of the country and reverse the loss to environmental resources. India is one among these member states. // In the Indian Constitution, Article 51 A (g) on Fundamental Duties , assigns a similar responsibility on individuals of the country to protect and improve the natural environment, including the forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife. // However, in a country of more than a billion people and great geographic, socio – cultural diversities, enforcing something through education will probably have a more far reaching effect over enforcing something by legislation and teachers must possess the skills to teach, propagate and train the young minds in schools to be more aware about their environment and be sensitive towards its degradation and also, be careful for its preservation. // Teachers can play a very dynamic role in transmitting knowledge, skills , attitude and concern to revert or at least control the damage that has been caused to the environment. // A comparative analysis is proposed to assess the level of awareness, sensitivity, attitude and concern of teacher students towards environment vis a vis the following; male and female teachers, rural and urban teachers, government and private school teachers etc. Statistical measures of mean, standard deviation and correlation shall be used to find out conclusions. // Paper ID: 186