Environmental Awareness Among the School Geography Teachers in Manipur
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Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AMONG THE SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS IN MANIPUR: A CASE OF IMPHAL EAST DISTRICT By: Dr Chirom Shantikumar Singh Assistant Professor, DM College of Teacher Education Email ID: [email protected] ABSTRACT Although environment has a great importance in modern times, yet environmental education has not been given due importance in our school education. Hence the present study is designed to assess the attitudes of geography teachers in Imphal East District, Manipur towards the environment change according to different variables, using ‘’Attitude Scale” for 240 geography teachers working in various high schools. The result revealed that the environmental attitudes of the geography teachers in the district are very high. It is also indicated that no significant differences among non-geographer geography teacher and geography teacher with geography at the graduation; and between male and female geography teachers towards environmental awareness. 1.1 Key Terms Used: Environment, Environmental education, Environmental awareness, Geography, and Pollution. 1.2 Introduction: the Study Area: Imphal East district lies between latitudes 24º39′49.09′′N and 25º4′5.45′′ N and longitudes 93º55′30′′ E and 94º8′42′′ E approximately and is one of the 16 districts of Manipur. It came into being with effect from 30th August, 1996 by bifurcating the erstwhile Imphal district into two districts namely Imphal East District and Imphal West District with its head quarters at Porompat. The district is bounded by Senapati district on the north and east; Thoubal district on the south and Imphal west district on the west. The district earlier had a total land area of 709 Sq. Kms. However, further bifurcation of Jiribam District has reduced the district’s territory to only 497 square kilometres. The district is further divided Volume XII, Issue XI, November/2020 Page No:38 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 into three sub-divisions namely: Porompat, Keirao Bitra and Sawombung and contains ten (10) assembly constituencies. The District is situated at an altitude of 790 metres above the M.S. Level and dotted with some hillocks like Khundrakpam, Angom Leikai (820m), Chingaren (804m) and Chingmeirong (802m). The Mount Nungsikon located in the Khundrakpam hill which stands at 1,168 metres above the mean sea level (MSL) is the highest relief in the district. Generally, the district slopes southwards. The Nongmaijing hill administratively under the Senapati district stretches along north- south from Kameng village to the end of the district boundary and attained altitude of 1,565 metres above the mean sea level. The climate of the District is salubrious and Monsoon is tropical. The minimum temperature goes down to 0.6 degree Celsius in winter and 31 degree Celsius in summer. The District is connected with N.H. 39, and N.H. 150. In the absence of rail network, communication is entirely dependent on roads. Being the second most populous district in the state, after Imphal West, the district as per 2011 census contains a total population of 4,56,113 persons constituting 16% of the total population of the Manipur and scattered over 172 inhabited villages. The density of population in the district is 643 inhabitants per square kilometre where the growth of population from 2001-11 was 14.63%. The district has sex ratio of 995 females per 1000 males in rural areas while 1051 females per 1000 males are recorded in urban areas. Imphal East district on an average has a favourable sex ratio of 1011 females for every 1000 males, with a high literacy rate of 82.81%. As per 2011 census, the languages spoken in Imphal East District are Manipuri, Nepali, Kabui, Hindi, and Tangkhul. Although the economy of the district is mainly agriculture based where the main occupation of the people is agriculture, commercialization in the sector is not yet done due to inadequate irrigation facilities and lack of improved farming techniques. While H.Y.V. (high yielding variety) and improved local paddy are cultivated in 27,000 and 4,100 hectares of land respectively, maize, wheat and potato are cultivated in 450, 60 and 350 hectares of land respectively. Fruits like pineapple, banana, lemon and papaya are grown well in the district. Pineapple grows in plenty along the slope of Ngariyan Hill. Since the soil and climate favour the plantation of horticultural products in the district, there is considerable scope for increasing the area under different horticulture crops. Volume XII, Issue XI, November/2020 Page No:39 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 There are no major industrial activities except cottage and small scale industries. Predominant economic activities prevalent in the district include agriculture, handloom, wool-knitting, cane and bamboo works, pottery, black smithy, carpentry, and retail trade/ small business. The industrial activities are concentrated in SSI, cottage and house-hold sectors. Shree-Shree Govindajee Temple, a golden temple located in the palace compound, Hanuman Temple at Mahabali, two war cemeteries maintained by the British war grave commission, and Khuman Lampak Sports Complex are some of the significant tourist sites within Imphal city. Temple at Kaina, a holy place of the Manipuri Hindus is known for its scenic environment, landscapes, climate and cultural heritage which has a great potential for development of tourism. 1.3 Rationale of the Study: Environmental education has not been given due importance in our school education in spite of the fact that environment has a great importance in modern times. Although environmental education is a process which aims at developing knowledge, attitude, understanding and commitment among students about various environmental problems and their solutions, the subject is not recognized as an effective instrument to motivate pupils in order to enable them to carry out such actions which can be helpful to preserve and protect environment. In this regard, school geography teachers are supposed to play a very important role. But until the teacher himself is not aware about the environmental concepts and problems, he cannot do justice to create awakening about environment and its problem among students. The findings may be useful to teachers and authorities in a way to make them realize the value of educating the teachers about the various problems of environment with which we want our next generations should fight and overcome it. Keeping these necessities in mind, the present study has been in this direction to study the nature and level of environmental awareness among the school geography teachers, in Imphal East District, Manipur. Volume XII, Issue XI, November/2020 Page No:40 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 1.4 Statement of the Problem: Environmental Awareness among the School Geography Teachers in Manipur: A Case of Imphal East District 1.5 Objectives of the Study: a) To study the level of environmental awareness among the school geography teachers. b) To study the difference, if any in environmental awareness between the non geographer geography teacher and geography teacher with geography in graduation. c) To study the differences, if any in environmental awareness between the male and female geography teachers. 1.6 Hypotheses of the Study: a) There is high level of environmental awareness among the high school geography teachers. b) There is no significant difference between the non geographer geography teacher and geography teacher with geography in graduation with respect to their environmental awareness. c) There is no significant difference between male and female geography teachers with respect to their environmental awareness. 1.7 Delimitation of the Study: a) The present study will be delimited to the high school geography teachers within Imphal East District, Manipur. b) The study will be restricted to only two variables viz., subject and gender. c) The study is confined to 240 school geography teachers (120male and 120 females). 1.8 Methods and Procedure: Descriptive survey method is being used in the present study wherein the relevant facts and information among the geography teachers under investigations were gathered with the help of appropriate tools. Volume XII, Issue XI, November/2020 Page No:41 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 1.9 Population: The geography teachers working in all the high schools located in Imphal East district, Manipur constitute the population of the present investigation. 1.10 Sample of the Study: The investigator, for the present study selects a sample of 240 geography teachers by using purposive random sampling method which include 120 geography teachers having geography at the graduation and another 120 non geographer geography teachers. Half of the teachers selected in each category were women. 1.11 Tools employed: A self structured Likert Type questionnaire on environmental awareness is being used as a major tool to assess the environmental awareness among the geography teachers. The questionnaire consists of 20 positive and another 5 negative statements in five point scale where the level of agreements are strongly agree, Agree, Undecided, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. Each level of agreements is given definite scores. For the positive statements, the scores were in the order of 5,4,3,2 and 1 whereas; the scores are recorded in the reverse order in case of negative statements.