EFFECT OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION INTERVENTION PROGRAMME ON RURAL WOMEN'S ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE

Environmental problems have persisted not only in urban centres but also in rural areas in Nigeria. A lot of measures have been adopted to mitigate these problems but these efforts have yielded little or no success. Again, most of the studies that have been carried out on environmental education have not really focused on women, especially in rural areas. This study, therefore, determined the effect of an environmental education intervention programme on rural women's knowledge, attitude and practices. The study adopted a pre-test; post-test control group quasi-experimental design with a 2 x2 x3 factorial matrix. Two hundred and fifteen women were randomly selected from three local governments purposively selected for the study and were assigned to experimental and control groups. (Two for experimental and one for control) Four instruments used were Environmental Knowledge Test (r= 0.55), Environmental Attitude Scales (r= 0.70), Environmental Practices Questionnaire (r= 0.71) and Focus Group Discussion Guide. The control group was not exposed to any training on environment issues. Data were subjected to Analysis of Covariance. Scheffe Post-hoc test treatment had significant main effect on rural women's Environmental Knowledge (F (3, 211) = 47.676, P < 0.05,.=.326), women taught with environmental education intervention programme (EEIP) had higher mean score of 44.57 than the control group with a mean score of 38.64. The environmental intervention programme was effective on rural women environmental knowledge. It is therefore recommended that the intervention programme used in this study be popularized among women in rural areas in Nigeria.