Assessing the Effectiveness of Environmental Education Programmes in Improving Environmental Behaviour Among Secondary School Students in the South West Zone

This study assesses the effectiveness of formal environmental education programmes in improving pro-environmental behaviour among secondary school students in the South West geopolitical zone, examining how curriculum design, teaching methodology, and school environmental management quality interact to determine environmental behaviour outcomes. Environmental education is a mandated component of the Nigerian secondary school curriculum, but evidence of its behavioural effectiveness is scarce and the factors that distinguish effective from ineffective programmes have not been empirically identified in the Nigerian context. A quasi-experimental design was employed, comparing pre-to-post changes in environmental knowledge, attitude, and self-reported behaviour in 300 students across six secondary schools, three of which received a structured twelve-week enhanced environmental education intervention while three maintained standard curriculum delivery. Schools were selected across Oyo, Lagos, and Osun States to represent diverse urban-rural and socioeconomic contexts. Validated environmental knowledge, attitude, and behaviour questionnaires were administered at baseline and twelve-week follow-up. Results show that the enhanced intervention produced significantly larger gains in environmental knowledge and attitude compared to the control schools, but behaviour change scores did not differ significantly between groups. School-level environmental management quality, specifically the availability of waste segregation bins and a maintained school garden, significantly moderates the attitude-to-behaviour relationship, with students in schools with better environmental infrastructure showing stronger behaviour change. The study concludes that behaviour change requires both educational content and enabling environmental infrastructure. Recommendations include a companion school environment improvement component in all environmental education programmes. Keywords: environmental education, behaviour change, secondary school, South West Nigeria, pro-environmental behaviour.