Perceptions about air quality and air pollution control in a metropolitan urban residential a cross sectional case study in palembang, indonesia

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY MUHAMMAD DICKY DARMAWAN PERCEPTIONS ABOUT AIR QUALITY AND AIR POLLUTION CONTROL IN A METROPOLITAN URBAN RESIDENTIAL: A C

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY

MUHAMMAD DICKY DARMAWAN

PERCEPTIONS ABOUT AIR QUALITY AND AIR POLLUTION CONTROL

IN A METROPOLITAN URBAN RESIDENTIAL: A CROSS-SECTIONAL

CASE STUDY IN PALEMBANG, INDONESIA

BACHELOR THESIS

Study Mode : Full-time

Major : Environmental Science and Management

Faculty : International Programs Office

Thai Nguyen, 10/11/2020

DOCUMENTATION PAGE WITH ABSTRACT

Thai Nguyen University of Agricultural and Forestry

Degree Program Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management

Thesis Title

Perceptions about air quality and air pollution control in a metropolitan urban residential: a cross-sectional case study in Palembang, Indonesia

Supervisor (s) Dr Ho Ngoc Son & Dr.rer.nat Nikki Heherson A Dagamac Abstract:

Air pollution has become a serious environmental problem that plagues many developing countries in Southeast Asia over the past few decades This research was conducted to evaluate the level of public perception about air quality management strategies and air pollution control in Palembang City, Indonesia This cross-sectional case study deliberately distributed a validated questionnaire among 1514 respondents coming from schools, government offices, industries, laborers and others This four-phase study was designed to (1) provide a glimpse on the current situation of environmental education, (2) determine how students perceived the situation of environmental education, (3) assess the levels of awareness, attitudes, and practices regarding air quality and air pollution control among high school students in Palembang, (4) measure the levels of knowledge, attitudes, practices and

to assess the willingness to pay of residents in the city of Palembang about air quality and air pollution control This study provided key major findings that (i)

constructivist teaching programs based on an environmental education approach can

be designed, (ii) students realize that through innovation in the country's current environmental education system by including a curriculum that emphasizes the concept of sustainability is urgently needed, (iii) policies that involve improvement

on the curriculum of environmental education in Indonesia are recommended to increase the proactivity of the younger generation towards a more sustainable mitigation of air pollution problem in the country, (iv) government policies and programs related to air pollution control must be immediately emphasized in order

to improve air quality in Indonesia

Number of pages 112

Date of

Submission:

10/11/2020

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First of all I would like to express my praise and gratitude to Allah SWT, because of his blessings and grace so that I was able to complete this undergraduate thesis well Furthermore, in completing this thesis, of course as a researcher, I cannot be separated from the obstacles and difficulties And other things, I am very grateful to all those who have provided input in various forms for this research Special thanks to Dr.rer.nat Nikki Heherson A Dagamac for his invaluable guidance and support throughout this research, also to Dr Ho Ngoc Son for all the permission and wise advice given to me, you both are epic supervisors that I ever had And also I would like to say a million thanks to Prof Nguyen The Hung (Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam), Dr Condro Wibowo (Jenderal Soedirman University, Indonesia), Dr Paul Kristiansen (The University of New England, Australia), Dr.Agr.Sc Ernoiz Antriyandarti (Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia), Dr H Suhuri, M.Pd (SMAN12), Wiwi Heriyani, M.Pd (SMAN12), and Mami Lusi Desdemona, S.Pd (SMAN12) for their assistance as validators in this research Thank you to every head of government offices for allowing me to be able to collect data in their office And a big thanks to

my loving mom (Titin Agustina) and my sisters (Siti Syahra & Ana Putri Pratiwi), I wouldn’t even be writing a thesis if it hadn’t been for the way you motivated me to push myself beyond my capabilities To my best friend Fitria Silfiani Hilmy, thank you for always supporting me in whatever condition I am, and also to my crazy friends Ari Zuzu and Pauline Pulpul who always cheer me up when I'm down And last to my only roommate in Vietnam (Liham Mulawarman), where we are both struggling to

TABLE OF CONTENT

List of Figures vii

List of Tables 8

List of Abbreviations 9

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 10

1.1 Research rationale 10

1.2 Research questions and hypotheses 13

1.3 Research objectives 16

1.4 Significance of study 18

1.5 Scope and limitations 19

1.6 Definitions of terms 19

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 21

2.1 Environmental Education 21

2.2 Air Quality in Indonesia 28

2.3 Social Perceptions about Air Pollution 30

2.4 Economic Implications 32

CHAPTER III SITUATIONS OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION 35

3.1 Materials and Methods 35

3.2 Results 36

3.3 Discussion 43

CHAPTER IV STUDENTS’ INSIGHTS ON TEACHING AIR POLLUTION 48

4.1 Materials and Methods 48

4.2 Results 49

4.3 Discussion 52

CHAPTER V AAP OF STUDENTS REGARDING AIR POLLUTION 56

5.1 Materials and Methods 56

5.2 Results 58

5.3 Discussion 65

CHAPTER VI KAP AND WTP OF RESIDENTS REGARDING AIR POLLUTION 74

6.1 Materials and Methods 74

6.2 Results 76

6.3 Discussion 85

CHAPTER VII SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 93

REFERENCES 97

APPENDICES 113

List of Figures

Chapter V Awareness, attitudes, and practices of senior high school students

Figure 5.1 Preparation, selection of respondents 56

Figure 5.2 Students’ attitudes on air pollution 62

Figure 5.3 Students’ practices on air pollution 64

Chapter VI Knowledge, attitudes, practices and WtP of Residents Figure 6.1 Study design and data collection 74

Figure 6.2 Residents’ attitudes on air pollution 81

Figure 6.3 Residents’ practices on air pollution 83

Figure 6.4 Residents’ satisfaction on air quality 88

List of Tables

Chapter V Awareness, attitudes, and practices of senior high school students

Table 5.1 Characteristics of the participants 58

Chapter VI Knowledge, attitudes, practices and WtP of Residents

Table 6.1 Characteristics of the participants 77

Table 6.2 The Willingness to Pay of Respondents 84

List of Abbreviations

AAP Awareness, Attitudes, and Practices

ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations

FGDs Focal Group Discussions

KAA Knowledge, Attitudes, and Awareness

KAP Knowledge, Attitudes, adn Practices

NOx Nitrogen Oxide

PM 10 Particulate Matter 10

PM 2.5 Particulate Matter 2.5

SDGs Sustainability Development Goals

SOx Sulfur Oxide

SWM Solid Waste Management

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

WHO World Health Organization

WTP Willingness to Pay

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Rationale

Air is the most important factor in life However, related to the increase in population, human needs will also increase significantly to support their survival Thus, the need to develop the city, starting from the construction of infrastructure, as well as the development of transportation and also the number of industries can contribute to the increase of pollution in the air Clean air is a basic requirement for human health, however, rapid economic development in some developing countries increase the number of industries Regarding waste released into the atmosphere, air pollution has become a major risk to public health (Liao et al., 2015) In this case, the level of air quality will also experience changes associated with increased air pollution due to human activities, or as changes in air regulation from normal requirements, such as the entry of pollutants (aerosols and small particles) or the content of other hazardous substances into the air in a certain amount to a long period of time This now in return can affect air quality, which can determine the level of human health, animals and plants (BPLH DKI Jakarta, 2015)

The city of Palembang or more commonly called the City of empek-empek is located in the South Sumatera Province The city is famous as a center for Sriwijaya Kingdom and Sport city Located in the lowlands with the height of approximately 8 masl (Pemerintah Kota Palembang, 2016) Palembang is currently a developing city in the fields of infrastructure, industry, housing, education, trade, and transportation Along with urban development, it greatly influences the level of demand for

transportation on the streets as well as with the many industrial factories operating in Palembang city As a developing area that is heading for a new metropolitan city, this urban area has an approximately 400.61 km2 The availability of business space and public facilities that make this city as a supporting area for surrounding area Like other urban areas population density, traffic density, trade area, home industry can be found here The high intensity of those activities can cause air pollution in this city The total population of Palembang city in 2017 reached 1.643.488 people (Badan Pusat Statistik kota Palembang, 2018) In fact, this could be highly the scenario in many urbanized areas in Indonesia, particularly, Palembang

Population density in Palembang city is not ideal, the average density reaches 4.052 people per square kilometer This condition is considered prone to cause social, economic, and environmental problems With the increasing number of the population comes with an increasing number of vehicles In November 2017, the number of vehicle in Palembang city reached 667.786 vehicles with details 458.805 motorcycles, 24.589 freight cars, 183.014 passenger cars, and 1.378 bus, with a number of large and medium-sized of companies as many as 69 operating in Palembang city (Badan Pusat Statistik provinsi Sumsel, 2017)

The increased number of vehicles and industries potentially may increase air pollution in the environment (Liaquat et al., 2010) According to Indonesia’s Constitution number 32 year 2009 concerning Protection and Management of Natural Environment, natural environmental pollution is the entry or inclusion of living things, substances, energy, and other components into the environment by human activities so that it exceeds environmental quality standards which have been set Air pollution

generated by vehicles exhaust gases particularly occurs on protocol roads, which is the main road in big cities as traffic center (Wakhid, 2018)

Smoke pollution is an increasingly severe public health problem throughout the world, including in the city of Palembang, where environmental damage has accompanied rapid economic growth The fundamental cause of smog is a high concentration of fine particles (PM 2.5) or aerosol pollution which is mainly caused by coal combustion, vehicle exhaust, and industrial emissions (Minghui et al., 2019)

In other cases, forest fires always occur every year in the province of South Sumatra, so that it gives an impact in the form of smog to several cities in south sumatera province, including Palembang city Based on data from the South Sumatra Health Office (DKSS, 2019), it states that the number of respiratory disease sufferers

in South Sumatra in January - July 2019 reached 312,038 people Even Palembang city became the highest area with the number of sufferers of respiratory disease reaching 92,416 people

In spite of this factual information regarding air pollution and urbanization in Palembang, there was no information on the perception of Palembang residents in terms of such environmental issues According to Qian et al., 2016 KAP (Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices) survey is a representative study of a certain population, which aims to collect data about what is known, believed, and carried out in relation to a particular topic This is an important element of ambient air pollution control, because currently, there is limited information available about the KAP perceptions of the residents of the city of Palembang regarding air pollution Although several studies have investigated public awareness about air pollution and its adverse effects on health

in several cities in Asia, Liu et al 2017., Wang et al 2015., Liao et al 2015., and Qian

et al 2016., while the Palembang city investigation has never been conducted Therefore, this study focuses on the city of Palembang as an example to understand and identify the factors associated with the knowledge of Palembang residents about current ambient air pollution, and how their attitude towards air pollution control, and protection practices in Palembang, as well as the willingness them to pay for improvements in air quality Furthermore, in order to assess the public’ enthusiasm regarding improvement of environmental condition, the conception of Willingness to Pay (WtP) is introduced Wtp is an intention when respondents are asked to state whether they are willing to pay for non market product The main purpose of WtP was applied to bridge the gap between environment and social economics (Rong et al., 2018) All of these information can be very important particularly in creating environmental assessments and management strategies that the local government unit

in Palembang needs to enact to mitigate the increasing problem of air pollution in the future

1.2 Research Questions and Hypotheses

This research study was designed to integrate the perceptions of different stakeholders of Palembang city who play an important role in addressing environmental problem; four themes were used to show the different aspects of this research

1.2.1 Teacher’s perspectives on the environmental education situation in Indonesia

Background: Environmental literacy helps to address key challenges in

providing sustainable development, the active practice of promoting environmental awareness inside the classroom and innovative curriculum change among many educational systems Active participation from teachers will be a key to providing awareness to students in overcoming the challenges of global

environmental problems such as air pollution, climate change, and others

Question: What is the situation of environmental education in senior high school

programs in Indonesia?

Hypothesis: Teachers from Palembang can address the current situation of

educating Indonesian students regarding environmental issues

1.2.2 Qualitative assessment of students on environmental education situation

Background: The young generation has enormous potential in the maintenance,

preservation and prevention of environmental pollution Unfortunately, there is still a lack of awareness from young generation towards air pollution In fact, awareness is important to environmental sustainability, and it is a shared responsibility to ensure its sustainability in the form of proactive and reactive

actions

Question: What are the students’ insights on teaching air pollution in Indonesian

classrooms?

Hypothesis: Students qualifies different responses regarding their knowledge

about air quality taught inside the classroom

1.2.3 Awareness, attitudes, and practices of students on air pollution

Background: Increasing the level of awareness about major environmental

problems is expected to at least change the environmental apathy and irresponsible human practices towards nature These knowledge and awareness most especially on pressing issues about air quality and air pollution control can

be integrated in environmental education curriculum of many high schools in the ASEAN region Since this generation of students is considered to be the next educated workforce for a developing country that would combat the current plight against air pollution, baseline information regarding their perceptions about the problem should be urgently documented

Question: What is the level of awareness, attitude, and practices of senior high

school students regarding Indonesia’s air quality management?

Hypothesis: The awareness, attitude, and practices of senior high school students

are influenced by demographics

1.2.4 Knowledge, attitudes, practices and WtP of residents on air pollution

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) has showed that ca 91%

of the global population lives in places where air quality levels already exceed the limits WHO have set These places are characterized from low- to middle income countries such as those that are positioned in the Western Pacific and

South East Asian region including Indonesia Nevertheless, as an important

prerequisite for a more sustainable environment and safer public health, clean air has become a scarce good in many metropolitan cities in the world particularly in

developing Asian nations Besides being considered as a major health problem that leads to increasing global death caused by chronic respiratory diseases, the ambient air pollution is also known to create burdening environmental impacts i.e formation of acid rain, and ozone depletion In a situation like this it is very unfortunate because everyone's awareness in treating the environment in a

pleasant manner and do not care about the impact in the future

Questions:

- What is the level of knowledge / awareness, common attitude and Palembang

residents' protection measures in terms of the situation of urban air quality?

- What is the distribution of working classes that would like to pay for the

improvement of air quality of Palembang?

Hypothesis:

- The residents of Palembang understand in terms of knowledge, attitudes, and

practices towards air quality management and air pollution control in Indonesia

- Indonesian working classes would like to pay for the air quality improvement

1.3 Research Objectives

To address the specific research questions that was raised above, the following research objectives are formulated for each of the four perception phases of this study

1.3.1 Teacher’s perspectives on the environmental education situation in Indonesia

 To provide a glimpse on the current situation of environmental education at the

1.3.2 Qualitative assessment of students on environmental education situation

 To determine how students perceived the situation of environmental education

in their senior high schools and how the issue of air pollution are tackled in their conservative classrooms

1.3.3 Awareness, attitudes, and practices of students on air pollution

 To interview via face to face and focal group discussions to acquire common

information regarding the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the sample populace

 To create the first survey that would assess the levels of awareness, attitudes,

and practices regarding air quality and air pollution control among high school students in Palembang City, Indonesia

 With the hope that this research can serve as a ground basis for improving

educational systems and as a reference standard on how environmental issues should be address in most Indonesian schools

1.3.4 Knowledge, attitudes, practices and WtP of residents on air pollution

Indonesian’s KAP on air quality management and air pollution control

 To conduct a survey that will qualitatively measure the level of knowledge,

attitudes, and practices of residents in the city of Palembang about air quality and air pollution control

 To calculate the distribution of the sample population and its probable

association to certain age groups, sectoral unit, traveling lifestyle, and current occupation

Indonesian’s WTP on air quality management and air pollution control

 To valuate the proposal of creating environmental measures on air quality

problems in Palembang city

 To assess the willingness of the working classes (professionals and skilled

laborers) to financially contribute on mitigation projects regarding air pollution control

1.4 Significance of the study

This research will be significant to the following;

1.5 Scope and Limitations

The study was conducted from January to June 2020 During this time period data collection was performed, analyzed, and interpreted accordingly Although the research was able to achieve its goals, there were unfortunate limitations for the study (1) Some people may not available to be surveyed and also honesty from the respondents in answering the questionnaire that might take this result to the failure result (2) Some government offices and industries did not allow the researchers to collect data in their agencies (3) During the COVID19 pandemic, it caused difficulties for researchers to collect data, due to instructions from the local government to work from home and maintain physical distance

1.6 Definition of Terms

For purposes of clarity and easy to understanding, the following terms are defined in the context of how they are used in this study

Awareness, Attitudes, Practices (AAP) is an instrument used to determine the level

of awareness through knowledge, attitudes, and practices

Adiwiyata Program is an initiative of the Indonesian government that refers to

schools to implementing environmental cultured programs

ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) refers to a regional organization

of Southeast Asia that deals with the economic problems of member countries for mutual progress

Environmental Education refers to providing information about knowledge related to

the environment and its problems

Generation-Z also known as millenials, refers to the new generation, those who were

born in the mid-1990s until the early 2000s as the end of birth

Green Schools refers to schools that develop programs to internalize environmental

values into all school activities

Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices (KAP) is an instrument used to determine the level

of awareness through knowledge, attitudes, and practices

Sustainable Development economic development that is conducted without depletion

of natural resources

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a world program that refers to the welfare of

the world community and preserve nature

Pedagogy refers to the method and strategy of teaching

PM 10 Particulate Matter (PM) 10 is a fine particle in the air that measures

10 microns or smaller than that

PM 2.5 Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 is a fine particle in the air that measures

2.5 microns or smaller than that

Willingness to Pay (WtP) is an instrument used to determine the level of willingness

to fix something

World Health Organization (WHO) is an organization formed by the United Nations

to work together in the field of world health

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Environmental Education

Although it sounds cliche, the notion that the current younger generation will inherit the harsh outcome of environmental degradation brought upon by economic development might still hold true In return, they are expected to be the prime forces that would help alleviate the piling of enormous environmental problems that are happening nowadays A number of related studies have reported perceptions of the younger generation on topics related to the impacts of the current environmental problems (see Zsoka et al., 2013; Oguz et al., 2010; Lorenzoni et al., 2007) that the world is facing particularly coming from students of the developing and least developing countries For instance, the survey of students have indicated the increasing awareness of students on the physical impacts brought about by climate change (Bangladesh, Rahman et al., 2018; Bahrain, Freije et al., 2017), plastic pollution (UAE, Hammami et al., 2017), renewable energy (Colombia, Edsand & Broich, 2019) and invasive species (Portugal, Schreck-Reis et al., 2013) Such awareness can be attributed to the value of environmental educational efforts invested

by many countries throughout the world

Educating the 21st century learners with the right amount of long-term knowledge and competitive soft skills is a wise investment for any developing nation that envisioned a more sustainable livelihood and a better quality of life for its community This idea served as a backbone of many international policy discourses, i.e the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) 4 that aim to develop “Quality

Education” for all the citizen of this world (Kopnina, 2020) The emergence of these new ideal standards of education every country should provide to its younger generation necessitated active discussions in the field of environmental education or

EE (Fraser et al., 2015; Potter, 2009) Environmental education is also the main constituent of the concept that is heavily context dependent in social, cultural and environmental situations that is sustainable development (Jeronen et al., 2016) Its goal

is to highlight on “education for sustainability” which is not only for environmental education but for poverty alleviation (Tilbury, 2003), socio-economic development (Jickling & Wals, 2008), even population and gender issues (Larsson et al., 2010) It is also expected to promote environmentally sustainable societies throughout the Asia-Pacific region (Bhandari & Abe, 2000) Unfortunately, some countries in Asia are focused more on national development rather than social and ecological sustainability (Furihata & Ninomiya-Lim, 2017)

Indonesia is considered to be the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country with a significantly large population size With really high number of various ethnic groups that can speak more than 700 living languages, it is obvious that Indonesia is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world Historically, the concept of EE in Indonesia can be traced back during Suharto’s authoritarian regime For nearly 30 years in governance, his administration achieved Indonesia’s most rapid economic growth in the late 1960s including stronger environmental efforts for the country (Nomura, 2009) In spite of criticisms that the Ministry of Environment received at that time, environmental education was still initiated in Indonesia beginning with the university education At present, both the state owned and private universities in

Indonesia are engaging in training and strengthening the research thrust of the country geared towards finding appropriate environmental solutions to the increasing problems related to many socio-economic problems of a developing third world country Among these efforts are (i) courses that teach environmental impact assessment for university staff members, (ii) trainings on population and environment for elementary, secondary highs school teachers and (iii) production of informative educational materials that could be disseminated to the public Furthermore, it was mentioned in the book chapter published by Nomura & Suyono (2014) that leading universities in Indonesia have been offering environmental undergraduate programs namely environmental planning and management, environmental laws, geographic information system, ecology etc Although environmental education could be integrated in many university courses in Indonesia, the primary, elementary and high school level in the country do not yet have an independent subject related to environmental education Rather, scouting is encouraged as an outdoor EE activity (Nomura 2009) and environmental issues are incorporated in the curriculum system in almost all subjects thought at secondary level of education in Indonesia (Prihantoro 2015) Besides this, a recent paper of Aprilia et al (2018), have recognized the development of the so called

“Kitakyushu Eco Model/KEM” on education and society awareness sector at a visual impairment school in Bandung

With the continued rising of environmental issues such as loss of biodiversity, climate change and pollution over the last decade that triggered preparedness for natural calamities and management of risk disasters in the tropical Southeast Asia, it is expected that schools in the country have implemented novel teaching strategies to

raise more environmental awareness, and risk attitude among the youth sectors This expectation is valid enough especially now in an era where so much fake news is appearing in many digital platforms and many students are vulnerable to misinformation

Furthermore, environmental crisis in the modern society is caused by environmental management that ignored the principle of sustainability Many methods have been done to alleviate these environmental crises globally however until now, there is no instant and quick formula to fix all the damages brought upon by the continued degradation of natural resources Therefore, it needs another long term formula in solving this natural problem One way that can be used is by educational approach According to Herdiansyah et al (2016) the involvement of environmental

development could be done through two kinds of approaches – project approach and motivation approach The first approach (project) is based on redesigning existing

curriculum that would focus in contributing to the success of the student learning experience The implementation of this new design involves an evolutionary improvement of the existing traditional curriculum with gradual modifications (Drinka

et al., 2019) On the other hand, the second approach (motivation) is characterized of

an educational environment that has a set of spatial-objective, social, psychological and pedagogical influences as objects of analysis (Kislyakov, 2017) Although the motivational approach may spend a longer time, Pahl et al (2017) have noted that it will yield more positive effects because the target students will gradually change their attitude and behavior in persuasive manner The student’s behavior of ignoring environmental problem will turn into attitudes that will always grow and culminate in

stability of environmental involvement Nevertheless, both approaches can be integrated through education systems that would enforce not just environmental awareness but as well as environmental values These may served as the backbone of the younger generation to engage themselves on many international policy discourses The younger generation are expected to actively participate and become game changers for the environmental crises that our world is facing nowadays In spite of many social digital platforms that allowed the younger generation to learn and communicate many of their environmental concerns, advocacies, and inquiries, conservative education systems, especially on many developing countries in Southeast Asia, are still reliant on traditional education inside the classroom

In particular is the Muslim dominated country of Indonesia whose rapid urbanization has occured in less than two generations (Dethier, 2017) This urbanization has also boosted the consumption needs of the Indonesian populace In particular is energy consumption coming from industries and normal households, wherein most of the sustainable energy supplies are needed to be maintained and improved (Alam, 2016) According to Santosa et al (2008), the rapid development of Indonesia was in fact heavily fueled by fossil fuels, especially oil, followed by natural

gas and coal The exploitation of fossil fuel in “fueling” the development of the

country resulted in significant environmental quality degradation Air pollution is perhaps Indonesia's most severe environmental problem The construction of infrastructure, as well as the development of transportation and also the number of industries can contribute to the increase of pollution in the air (Ummi et al., 2019; Setiawan et al., 2018; Wijayanti et al., 2018; Saudi et al., 2019) Clean air is a basic

requirement for human health, however, rapid economic development have resulted to the increase on the number of industries that pollutes the atmosphere This worsening air quality now poses as a major risk to public health (Liao et al., 2015) Furthermore, fires associated with agricultural and plantation development in Indonesia has released emissions into the atmosphere that does not only degrade regional air quality but also contributed to greenhouse gas concentrations (Marlier et al., 2015a) Forty-five percent

of Indonesia's deforestation from 2000 to 2010 was observed on oil palm, timber, logging, and coal mining concessions (Abood et al., 2015) Fires are considered to be a cheap and effective method to clear and maintain land for agricultural and plantation development (Simorangkir, 2007), but at the same time damages biodiversity, reduces carbon storage potential, and can severely degrade regional air quality

The Indonesian government tried to address urban environmental issues starting

in the 1980s, but this has been a relative failure because policy implementation has been poor due to corruption, weak commitment of public agencies’ to combat on environmental issues, and local government authorities’ low awareness of the environmental problems (Dethier, 2017)

Changing people's behaviors and views about the environment, with the hope that this can change their actions and will make them as a more concerned citizen that would protect their environment, is the goal of a sustainable environmental education (EE) In the case of Indonesia, this is addressed by the government through the

implementation of the Adiwiyata program Adiwiyata is a program that aims to make

school residents responsible for efforts to protect and manage the environment by the realization of increasing environmental awareness by implementing cultured

environments in schools (Latief et al., 2019; Caddafie et al., 2017; Desfandi et al., 2019) However, the curriculum for most Indonesian high-schools nowadays also should be strategically formulated that does not only produce teaching materials but rather pays attention to current developments of fast changing educational landscape The curriculum must always be updated in line with changes to remain relevant to a changing society (Prihantoro, 2015) Environmental Education (EE) has always tried

to balance between two things: a realistic account of the threats that the world is facing and an attitude which would motivate and empower people (Pihkala, 2017) However, there are problems related to the low participation of the community to participate in environmental education (EE) movement due to limited understanding of the existing environmental education issues such as lack of information, and socialization from environmental education itself (Darmawan & Dagamac, 2020)

According to the research of Parker et al (2018), Indonesian students identified waste or rubbish, and not consumption, as the main problem locally but were not well informed about environmental issues both in national and international scales They are vague about how to ameliorate environmental problems, reflecting the weakness of

EE in problem-solving for the country According to the findings of their research, students perceived, ‘society’ – rather than governments, industry or consumers – as the most accountable in causing environmental problems There is a need to developed an environmentally-friendly education as a solution to the aforementioned air pollution problems The negative actions of human obviously damage the earth which ultimately causes the pressing issue of global warming Educating students at a very early age on topics related to pertinent environmental problems to raise ecological awareness is an

important alternative to address the apathy of people towards environmental protection (Sagala et al., 2019; Hu, 2019) However, a missing gap on many studies concerning environmental issues related to air pollution in Indonesia is to communicate the insights of many other important stakeholders, particularly are the rapidly evolving high school learners in the country

2.2 Air quality in Indonesia

As an important prerequisite for a more sustainable environment and safer public health, clean air has become a scarce good in many metropolitan cities in the world particularly in developing Asian nations Besides being considered as a major health problem (Greenstone et al., 2019) that leads to increasing global death caused by chronic respiratory diseases (Khaltaev et al., 2019), the ambient air pollution is also known to create burdening environmental impacts i.e formation of acid rain, and ozone depletion (Manisalidis et al., 2020) From thick smog that hangs over the urban cities to the smokes build from indoor activities (Kelly et al., 2019), the air pollution problem is certainly becoming a major threat that affects the lives of people thriving in poor nations

As proof, reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) have showed that

ca 91% of the global population lives in places where air quality levels already exceed the limits WHO have set These places are characterized from low- to middle income countries such as those that are positioned in the Western Pacific and South East Asian region including Indonesia (Basri et al., 2020) Alarmingly, over the last period of years (1990 – 2017), Indonesia has contributed an average of 7.79% shares of global

death rates from air pollution alone This figure shows a clear trade-off between economic growth and environmental sustainability for Indonesia In fact there were a lot of industrial companies that have been rapidly building (Nurlis, 2019; Suryati et al., 2018) and even many private vehicles powered by fossil fuels have been increasing in sales just during the last decades (Liebman et al., 2019) To at least alleviate the air pollution problem caused by many outdoor or indoor activities of the Indonesian populace, policies and regulations even at a local level should be implemented Nevertheless, educating the younger generation, especially the digitally inclined 21st

century learners about their vital role in improving air quality is seen as a “win-win” tactic for both the climate and health problems (Galan-Martin et al., 2018; Martinez et al., 2019), teaching them how they can decrease the amount of diseases attributable to air pollution and at the same time teaching them how they can contribute on climate change mitigation

Increasing the level of awareness about major environmental problems is expected to at least change the environmental apathy and irresponsible human practices towards nature These knowledge and awareness most especially on pressing issues about air quality and air pollution control can be integrated in environmental education curriculum of many high schools in the ASEAN region Since this generation of students are considered to be the next educated workforce for a developing country that would combat the current plight against air pollution, baseline information regarding their perceptions about the problem should be urgently documented As of now, there is an absence of research in this topic where students’ environmental understanding in Southeast Asia is tackled

2.3 Social perceptions about air pollution

The level of air quality is a major concern which air pollution has a negative impact on daily life, because it can threaten to human health (Ghorani-Azam et al., 2016), plants (Rai, 2016), animals (Losacco et al., 2018) and climate change (Seinfeld

et al., 2016) Many human activities that cause air pollution, which foreign trade contributes most to the decline in air quality, followed by economic growth, industrial structure and foreign direct investment (Zhu et al., 2019) and also transportation (Alvarez-Vazquez et al., 2017) According to World Health Organization (WHO) which showed around 91% of the world's population live in areas where air quality levels exceeding the WHO limit However, air pollution is not very visible, which causes people to become less aware of the quality of polluted air Previous studies have shown that students' perceptions in the city of Palembang about air pollution, which is an inconsistency seen from the mismatch between awareness and practices (Darmawan et al., 2020) Therefore, potential reasons for showing individual air quality perceptions may different based on their sociodemographic status, including gender, age, education, awareness, and actions

Social perception refers to the process by which a person has their own judgment and opinion about an issue This means that perception can also be a tool to understand something, through self-awareness, so that later it can be developed to be used as a solution Stimulus situations and conditions, with changes in circumstances in the environment that can be felt, both changes in the internal and external environment, which can play a role and can also affect social perception The study of social perception is important in the study of behaviour because people's behaviours are

based on their perception of what reality is and not about reality itself However, new ideas that arise can be developed to improve all existing policies, so that the policy will be better and easier to implement Therefore, it will be more possible if new ideas will be integrated into perception Because this will make new ideas more competitive

in the sense that policy makers will better understand the meaning and value of new ideas (Abdulkareem et al., 2018; Dong et al., 2019; Mehryar et al., 2018; Schluter et al., 2017)

Apart from industrial activities and power generation, transportation activities are also the dominant mode which is the main source of air pollutants in Southeast Asian countries (Capeda et al., 2017), as well as a research that has been done in Vietnam by

Ho, (2017) and Phung et al., (2016) According to Leung (2018) about the perception

on air quality in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam, showed that the air quality condition is widely perceived to be poor Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) perception studies in countries with large economic developments, with severe air pollution, with various focus on health effects (Chen et al., 2013; Chin et al., 2019; Lan et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2015), environmental effects (Han et al., 2014), tourism impacts (Becken

et al., 2017; Paramati et al., 2017), public knowledge and information (Qian et al., 2016; Zhao et al., 2019), broader policies such as willingness to pay for pollution mitigation (Liu et al., 2018; Sun et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2016; Yang et al., 2018), and environmental education situation (Darmawan & Dagamac, 2020), which research from Sudarmadi, (2001) on KAA showed that educated groups have better perceptions and knowledge, who have more awareness, and behave better in terms of regional and global environmental problems

The study of perception often considers various sources of air pollution, which come from industrial activities, transportation, and agriculture at the same time Specific perceptions of studies on air quality and air pollution control are not so many but are now slowly emerging and it is urgently needed, we are not well aware of other research on perceptions of air pollution in Indonesia up to this date This survey study refers to identifying how people's perceptions of the problem of air pollution that continues to occur in the city of Palembang, by knowing how their level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices It is hoped that this study can also encourage decision makers and the role of local governments through their policies in overcoming the problem of air pollution in the past few years which has worsened and has the potential to continue in the following years This is the main motivation for this research

2.4 Economic implications

Relating to the character of consumers in the ability and willingness to fulfill payments This means that WtP is a willingness to pay, which in this study is addressed to the people of Palembang to find out whether they are willing or not willing to pay for environmental improvements Fairbanks et al., (2018) explained that this tool (WtP) works well for those who have cost difficulties, because it has a simple method for providing perspective on the customer's willingness to pay for the product

or service offered And according to Lalika et al (2017) stated that willingness to pay (WtP) can influence people to conserve watersheds Therefore, this is an opportunity

in this context can encourage the government to implementing policy instruments on environmental preservation and to review the effectiveness of such policies

Environmental damage due to human population continues to increase and is accompanied by developments in the current era Which is where the human population affects natural conditions Because, if more people live in an area, the necessities of life will also automatically increase With more and more people acting

as consumers, producers will produce their products so that they can meet the needs of their consumers Meanwhile, the more products released by industry, the more waste will be produced and discharged into the environment As we know, it is this waste that causes natural damage, especially to the environment such as ecosystem disturbance, natural disasters and others

Many policies and programs that have been pursued by the government in each country in reducing environmental damage One of them is in Singapore, with a program from the local government regarding the sealing of energy for household appliances According to Goh et al., (2018), which this energy labelling program aims

to promote energy conservation by bridging information asymmetries and providing information to consumers about the use of energy for household appliances, and one of the instruments used was WtP While in Spain is WtP for improved irrigation water supply (Guerrero et al., 2019) Another study is about health services (Richardson et al., 2017) Payments for ecosystem services (Gregory et al., 2017; Obeng, 2017) Technology (Costa et al., 2019; Sanchez et al., 2018) Environment, where the important to protect environmental damage caused by human activities (Aydogdu, 2016; Gupta, 2016; Liu et al., 2017; Xiong et al., 2018; Yaghi et al., 2017) Consumption (Carley et al., 2018; Leckner et al., 2018) Ecoturism, which is the

importance of a tourism activity that still preserves the environment (Bakar et al., 20216; Garcia et al., 2019; Hwang et al., 2018; Kazeminia et al., 2016)

However, in controlling air pollution, several studies in Asian countries have been conducted Where in China, according to Sun et al., (2016), two models were used for estimation the study; (1) the probit model is used to estimate the probability

of respondents who have a positive WTP value, and (2) the interval regression model

is used to estimate the specific WTP level of those who have a non-zero WTP value And the results show that almost 90% of respondents are willing to pay to reduce air pollution, and trust the government as a solution to overcome the haze crisis Another study was conducted in Malaysia by Bazrbachi et al., (2017) shows that the average respondent is known to be willing to pay for their personal vehicle per trip to avoid using the public transportation system However, the efficiency of public transportation was found to have a significant impact on the respondents' WTP value

to maintain the current commuter system

of the interviews and they volunteered to participate in the duration of interview sessions needed for the study

Interview questions

A semi-structured interview was employed for this study The whole interview

process is divided into three-parts discussion components namely, (i) profiling component – where the participants are asked about the length of their teaching

experience and how they feel about their current teaching experience with the

millennial students; (ii) integrating component – where the participants answered

questions regarding their strategies in incorporating environmental issues in their topics in class and the limitations of environmental education in the current system of

education and lastly; (iii) prospecting component – where the participants conveyed

their opinions on the needs to improve the awareness of students on environmental issues and how school should cope-up with the speedily evolving educational landscape

Content analysis

During the interview process, which took between 15 – 45 minutes per participant, a voice recording was employed All the participants were initially informed about the data recording process and they were assured of the privacy of information that they will divulge during the course of the interview After the teachers willingly gave their consent for the recording, the interview commences with the interviewer jotting down important notes that the participants have been actively

tackling in an Aide-memoir The notes taken from Aide-memoir validated by the voice

recordings of all the interviewers were transcribed in verbatim Then, the content of the responses were coded, categorized, compared and were condensed to draw out the essence that are reported in this case study

3.2 Results

A total of 21 teachers (7 males and 14 females) coming from public senior high schools of Palembang participated in this qualitative study All these teachers have a teaching experience between 6 - 35 years The results of the interviews right after

analyzing their content are shown in this section with some verbatim quotations that

were directly translated from Bahasa to English for reference Two main themes appeared from the set of semi-structured research questions conducted Theme one is

about the teaching pedagogies in Indonesian school and the need for it to be reformed and the second theme is more about prospecting the fate of environmental education for the country

Theme one: The need to recalibrate teaching pedagogies

Features mentioned by the teachers included their insights about how strategies in teaching high school students in Indonesia should start to change and their personal experiences in discussing environmental issues in the classroom

Category 1: The best teaching strategy to give information about environmental issues for the “Generation Z” students

Teacher 06 with 6 years of experience have indicated

“The best approach now to teach topics related to the environment are a mixture of contextualized teaching and information technology since in the nearby future all information will just become digital and books will become

setting nowadays Since they are more active now in finding their information

on their own, an approach that would encourage them to collaborate and directly discuss their knowledge would be a better way to increase their awareness about environmental issues”

Teacher 11 added

“A problem based method would be ideal where students would focus on finding a solution to an environmental problem given to them This can train them to become proactive social problem solvers that can identify the causes and effects of a particular environmental problem in Indonesia”

the future”

Three experienced teacher (Teacher 07, Teacher 10, Teacher 13) also highlighted the same point about innovating the teaching strategy that they should do in the classroom

in particular they elaborated by saying the following respectively

“Make them comfortable inside the classroom or motivate them to learn about the environmental topic probably by incorporating strategies like letting them watch environmental documentary videos”

“Introducing first some conditioning activities that would encourage them to actively participate in the topic of the day would be a good strategy Even at their age, I still conduct some educational games and students are still like kids, they enjoy it"

“I bring them on the field for some activities so that whatever they learn inside our classroom they can apply it in practical scenarios that can happen in the real world”

Category 2: Experience in teaching environmental related issues on their subjects

Mixed teaching experiences have been gathered from the responses of the teachers regarding how they incorporate environmentally related issues on their subjects 19 teachers have shared that they actively incorporate environmental issues in their class

Teacher 03 with 35 years of experience in teaching shared

“I did provide information about petroleum, starting from the contents therein and the negative impacts of the combustion process"

Teacher 10 with 18 years of experience shared

“During the second semester at Grade 10 level, I teach about the ecosystems and here I tell them how the environment has been changing because of human interventions I usually tell them to find information on this topic relating to our topics in ecology and what I usually do is to ask them to do presentations”

While two respondents have said that although they do not directly incorporate environmental issues, they still reminds students what they need to do once they are outside the classroom

Teacher 08 shared

“I have not experience teaching them about environmental issues in our class but I give them simple information once in a while like telling them how they can help in preventing outdoor air pollution”

Teacher 12 also commented

“Unfortunately I never discussed directly about environmental problems during our class hours, but when students ask me especially during the smog in

Palembang I tell them what I know”

Category 3: The urgency to incorporate environmental issues in the classroom

All teachers agreed that it is very relevant and timely to start modifying the school system and integrates environmental issues in their topics The common narratives

from all the teachers highlighted that environmental education at the senior high school level is very urgently needed so that students can become environmentally

aware and be part of the solution and even further recommended that it would be