EVALUATION OF ENERGY LITERACY AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Energy is regarded as an omnipresent commodity in the modern age. Both, institutions (private corporations,governments, schools, universities e.t.c.) and individuals depend seriously on reliable access to useful energy in all its forms ( Creighton and Dewey, 1916). Energy (electrical) has become an indispensable commodity to the human race in thus 21st century ( Assmann, 2002), and has consequently increases the global warming reducing the safety in the world at large. Literacy, being the ability yo read and write is a fundamental human right and the foundation of human lifelong learning. Being literate possesses the ability to recognize the good an bad of particular issue and thus comes majorly with learning in a formal environment ( Claudio, 1988). Although introduction of renewables, energy policies, energy eiciency gadgets and energy conservation measures has being widely adopted in many nations of the world, energy education is one of the fundamental ways to solve the energy issues of the future. Energy education is paramount at every stage of education and to the near future. This branch of energy is gradually being accepted into the educational curriculum in many (developed/developing) supply.Energy is commodity used by almost all professionals to meet their customer demands. Consequently, energy was not thought of as a separate discipline of education but was incorporated into some aspects (energy conversion, conservation, transmission, utilization, extraction and distribution) of some disciplines (e.g electrical, chemical and mechanical engineering as well as physics) bases on their relevance to the student at that level. Energy education is a means by which the public gets to know about energy, what it entails and also how to use and make energy decisions.

Energy education should be classified based on it targeted students / audience. This scope of education should not be limited to the classroom but co certed eort should be made to organize informal educational programs in order yo reach out to the general public at large. Energy programs should be promoted on socialedia and adverts/ posters/ slogans that bring about energy saving measures should also be encouraged. Some of the I.portant energy education issues are discusses by Garg and Kandpal (1995), it is important to have a broad objective for any educational program and this proposed energy education scheme can follow the broad objectives set out.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Most developing countries of the world especially countries in Africa still have a lot of energy challenges in the power generation. Nigeria being the case study of this research still has a larger percentage of its population suffering from inadequate or LA k of power supply. Though energy education is generally needed in the world at large, there is a crucial need for it in the developing countries. Most developing Countries are blesses with vast renewable energy sources and these sources are still being underutilized or unutilized till date as the case may be in different countries. The solar potential I’m Nigeria is highly remarkable but its under-utilization or non-utilization is evident on the power sector of the country. Some of features available in developing countries which make energy education paramount include (Global energy network, 2014):