Abstract

• The purposes of this study are (1) to investigate the level of primary school children’s existing awareness towards environmental issues, (2) to investigate the level of primary school children’s existing attitudes towards environmental issues, (3) to identify the factors affecting environmental awareness of primary school children, and (4) to identify the factors affecting environmental attitudes of primary school children. Descriptive method was used in this research. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s Alpha) of questionnaire was 0.83. In qualitative study, interview and observation were used. A proportional stratified sampling was used to select 354 primary school children from 38 Basic Education Schools in Chaungzone Township. The parents of the children and teachers who taught at primary level also participated in this study. Among them, 20 teachers and 20 parents were purposively selected for qualitative study. Descriptive statistics, Item Percent Correct (IPC), Independent Samples t Test, One-Way ANOVA, post-hoc test by Tukey, and Multiple Regression were used for the analysis of quantitative data. In analyzing qualitative data, the cyclical process was used. According to the findings, it was found that most of the primary school children have satisfactory level of environmental awareness and above satisfactory level of environmental attitudes. Regarding the factors affecting children’s environmental awareness, the first predictor was their concern towards environmental issues and the second one was their out-ofschool experience. Concerning the factors affecting children’s environmental attitudes, the first predictor was their interest towards environmental issues, the second one was their in- school experience and the third one was gender. Qualitative study suggested that children who got the opportunity to participate in out-of-school experience and connect the lesson with the natural environment conveyed more environmental awareness than those of others.