Green Chemistry Education: An Assessment of the Awareness, Knowledge, and Application among Secondary School Students in Southwest Nigeria

To help protect the environment, human health and address global climatic challenges, the study assessed secondary chemistry students’ awareness, knowledge, sources of awareness, and perception on the application of green chemistry in real life situations. The study adopted a survey research design to draw 475 chemistry students from 12 public secondary schools (SS3) in two states in the Southwest, Nigeria. A self-structured questionnaire of twenty-six (26) statements on a four-point scale was used. The reliability with Cronbach Alpha gave a value of 0.965, indicating high reliability. The responses of the chemistry students were analysed using descriptive statistics and hypotheses tested with correlation analysis. The findings showed that secondary chemistry students have a moderate awareness of green chemistry, though their level of knowledge is low. Further, their perception of the application of green chemistry to real-life situations is strong. There were significant relationships among the students’ level of awareness, knowledge and perception on the application of green chemistry and there were no gender biases among the variables. The study recommended the integration of green chemistry at all levels of education in Nigeria and more public enlightenment to promote a green society.