Teachers’ Attitude towards Environmental Education and their roles in the school and nearby Community: The Case of Secondary Schools of South Wollo Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia.

Now-a-days Environmental problems such as pollution, waste disposal, soil erosion, flooding and deforestation through environmental education seem to have produced little or no result as the problems still persist. It is not that environmental problems are new but they are simply enlarging and threatening to become uncontrollable phenomena. Scholars have therefore, advocated environmental education activities that focus on early inculcation of the right knowledge in pupils at the primary and secondary school level. The study, therefore, investigated on teachers’ attitudes towards environmental education and their roles in the school and nearby community in the selected secondary schools. It also discussed Environmental Education (EE) as a key to creating environmental awareness, empowerment and participation indecision-making regarding some of the world’s vital environmental issues and challenges at secondary school level. Purposive sampling technique was adopted to select four secondary schools from thirty six and all geography and biology teachers including school directors were considered in the study. Relevant data were collected using liker-type scale questioner, observation check-list and semi-structured interview. The result showed that, teachers’ attitudes towards EE were found favorable. Whereas, their attitudes towards the teaching-learning process and their roles in the schools and nearby community were not encouraging. Based on these findings, some specific recommendations were made for implementation. Teachers’ should improve their roles in the school and nearby community, through organizing environmental conservation clubs which could serve as a model for the school and surrounding community. So, teachers’ can reach out to the community through their students’ environmental message. This will increase awareness and will influence attitude and activities towards their environment.