Environmental and Sustainability Literacy among Students at a Selected Institution of Higher Learning in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The study was carried to assess students’ environmental and sustainability literacy at a selected institution of higher learning in Zimbabwe. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. The questionnaire used was validated, and the Cronbach’s alpha was used to determine reliability (α = 0.767). Purposive, stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 70 respondents for the study from a population of 1352. The study revealed that the level of knowledge was mediocre, and one-way ANOVA showed no statistically significant difference in the level of knowledge among the groups (F (3,66) =2.376, p=0.078). Results also showed a positive attitude towards environment and sustainability issues; and identified the need to train every student about environment and sustainability (83%), with government support (93%) to achieve an environmentally sustainable world (96%). It was concluded that although the attitude among students was positive, the current syllabi are not explicit about environmental and sustainability issues which bear negatively on their environmental knowledge. The study recommends the introduction of a compulsory environmental education course in Higher and Tertiary Education in order to raise the environmental and sustainability literacy.