Exploring South African High School Students’ Knowledge of Environmental Pollution: A Comparative Study

Globally, environmental pollution, most especially in the industrialised nations, has remain a serious problem. Despite these, knowledge of young students about environmental pollution has been reported to be inadequate. This study examined high school students’ knowledge of environmental pollution in two South African provinces. The study was descriptive comparative in design. A total of 453 and 330 high school students in grades 8 to 12 from Mpumalanga (coal mining region) and Gauteng (non-coal mining region) provinces respectively were randomly selected for the study. A 12-item semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used in eliciting information on environmental pollution. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and unpaired t-tests. Participants age ranged from 13 years to 23 years (M = 16.1; SD = 1.75).Statistically significant differences in knowledge was reported between students from Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces. Newspaper was ranked as the most important source of information on environmental pollution by students from both provinces