Environmental Awareness in Junior Secondary School Education : A Comparative Study in Bengali-English Medium (Language of Study) Context in Sylhet (Bangladesh)

This study examines the environmental awareness in junior secondary school education in Bangladesh and accordingly assessed the text books of Junior Secondary level regarding environmental contents, measured the environmental awareness developed among the students at this level and compared the environmental awareness between Bengali medium and English medium students. Following an exploratory-descriptive research design, the study applied mixed methodology to achieve the objectives. Drawing on a sample survey and some focus group discussions (FGD) from two schools (Blue Bird school & Scholarshome) of Sylhet city in Bangladesh (one from each Bengali medium and English medium of study, respectively), this paper compared the environmental awareness developed between Bengali and English medium students at junior secondary level. The text books of this level have been studied and an assessment of the text books regarding environmental awareness developing contents has been made. The survey data has been analyzed with descriptive statistical tools (with SPSS) and estimated with a self-constructed 'ordinal rating index' (with a total score 30).