Wildlife Education Assessment in Public and Private Primary Schools for Sustainable Development: A Study in Ogun State Urban Area (Nigeria) and Central Region Area (Ghana)

The study aimed to know the level of wildlife knowledge among primary school student in Abeokuta north local government area, Ogun state Nigeria and Twifo-Hemang-Lower Denkyira district, central region, Ghana. A two steps sampling procedure was employed. The first involved stratifying the local government into north, east, south, west and central. Subsequently, schools were randomly sampled in each stratum. Five percent (5%) of the population of schools in Abeokuta north local government and Twifo-Hemang-Lower Denkyira district were sampled. Hence, 11 out of 216 private primary schools and 4 out of 86 were randomly sampled across the four strata. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire and a coloured photograph of ten common wild animal species in Nigerian zoos and Ghana’s Kakum national park. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies tables, mean and standard error. Comparison of responses between public and private schools was subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA). In the case of Nigeria, Panthera leo and Canis aureus were the most (99.54%) and least (14.54%) respectively identified and print wildlife in private primary schools while Macaca sinica and Canis aureus were the most (83.75%) and least (1.25%) respectively identified and print wildlife in public primary schools in the study areas. In the case of Ghana, Loxodonta cyclotis (forest elephants), Cephalophus silvicultor (yello-backed duiker), Tragelaphus eurycerus (bongo) and Cercopithecus diana (diana monkey) were the most identified and seen in print wildlife in private primary schools and few public primary schools in the study area. Class (0.702) significantly influences animal type identified and animal type seen in print in public schools while gender (0.876) significantly influenced wildlife seen in print in private schools. These findings revealed that wildlife awareness is more in private schools than public ones and also the good proportion of public school pupils have never visited the zoo and are not being physically exposed to nature.