Assessment of the Adequacy of Curriculum Content for Addressing Environmental Education in Secondary Schools in Cross River State

Environmental education is essential for developing ecological awareness and sustainable behaviours among Nigerian youth, and assessing how adequately current secondary school curricula address environmental themes in Cross River State, one of Nigeria's richest biodiversity zones, is both timely and important. This study assessed the adequacy of environmental education content in the Junior and Senior Secondary School curricula as implemented in Calabar Municipal and Calabar South Local Government Areas, Cross River State, South South Nigeria. A document analysis of curriculum guides and textbooks was combined with a survey of 160 teachers from 20 schools. Environmental content was evaluated for coverage depth, practical activity components, and local ecological relevance. Results showed that environmental topics were most extensively covered in Biology (mean coverage score 71.4 percent) and Geography (65.8 percent) but were minimally addressed in civic education and home economics. Locally relevant topics such as mangrove conservation, oil pollution, and rainforest biodiversity were covered in only 34.2 percent of relevant curriculum sections. Practical fieldwork for environmental study was conducted in only 21.9 percent of schools. Most teachers (69.4 percent) indicated inadequate content knowledge to teach environmental themes effectively. The study recommends curriculum integration of Cross River State's specific ecological context into existing subjects, teacher professional development in environmental pedagogy, and school environmental action projects as experiential learning components.

Keywords: environmental education, secondary school curriculum, Cross River State, ecological awareness, curriculum content