This thematic project brief describes the
background, lessons, achievements as well as challenges encountered while
implementing the school garden program
The school
garden initiative is compounded in the Community Empowerment programme (CEP)
which is being implemented by SNV a Netherlands Development Organisation in
Partnership with eight District local Governments, UNICEF and the Embassy of
the Kingdom of Netherlands, it’s a three year community empowerment programme
with 4 major components; Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) at school,
Community Wash, Civil society Organisation strengthening and Gardens at schools
which is an entry point for community school partnership with strong aspects of
mentoring, food security, agricultural practices, provision of scholastic
materials and school feeding.
The school
gardens concept is not a new intervention but has been implemented in quite a
number of districts in Uganda
by organisations like CRS, CARE International to mention with the cardinal aim
of improving quality education; and improving household livelihoods and food
security. It starts with establishing
school community partnership projects and then Schools become also centres of
social change and economic development.
A school garden is an innovative
teaching tool and strategy that lets educators incorporate hands-on activities
in a diversity of interdisciplinary, standards based lessons. The garden
engages students by providing a dynamic environment in which to observe,
discover, experiment, nurture, and learn. It is a living laboratory where
lessons are drawn from real-life experiences rather than textbook examples,
allowing students to become active participants in the learning process.
Through the garden, students gain an understanding of ecosystems, an
appreciation for food origins and nutrition, and knowledge of plant and animal
life cycles. At the same time, they learn practical agricultural skills that
last a lifetime.
Running a school garden requires not
only agricultural knowledge but also “people skills”. Other useful qualities
are enthusiasm and organizational capacity. There is need to plan and manage,
find resources, get help and support, keep in touch with those involved,
organize garden work and lessons, motivate people, and publicize garden
achievements. Fundamental part of the school gardens of the CEP is the
involvement of parents with management and work on the school garden. In
addition through involvement of agricultural extension services (LG,NAADS,
MAAIF, etc) the school garden will be used as a broader learning centre. In the
last phase the school garden learning site will be linked with more learning
sites at Household level in the community.
The purpose
of the garden at School is to enable increase in food security through increased productivity
and incomes at household level; secondly it should lead to improved quality of
education at primary school level through effective participation of parents in
school activities.
Thus the school garden has among other
objectives served to address;
§ Increased
community participation and sensitivity to activities in particular schools
resulting into improved primary school retention rates
§ As
a result of the impartation and hands on learning of good agricultural
practices, there has been increased adoption of good agricultural practices and
innovations in communities
§ As
a further result of good agronomic practices, and replication of learning from
school to the community gardens and improved yields there has been increased
access to and availability of food to rural households
§ Exposure
of the pupils, teachers, parents and community to best agronomic practices and
advice, and this has led to improved community’s access to quality extension
services
CONTEXT
Uganda is one of the first
growing economies amongst the third world countries with an average of 5% to 7%
economic growth rate per year. However this not withstanding, there are
challenges and gaps in matching this high economic growth with the quality of,
notably the social services, education,
health and environmental health especially in the rural areas where about 70%
majority of the population lives. Also the productive sectors like agriculture
do not seem to be trickling down to the rural communities with the relevant and
sustainable solutions to their challenges of food security, nutrition and house
hold incomes among others. Community participation in decision making and
designing their priorities as well as ability to hold service providers
accountably also plays a fundamental role in the prevailing undesirable and
persistent poor community livelihoods.
Schools have been identified as common
places that could be utilized to achieve numerous outcomes. Thus introducing
gardens at school is aiming at establishing a school as a transformation and
social change centre for improved quality education and improved community
livelihoods. The school garden project has been used for learning new farming
skills and agronomic practices that are later implemented at the respective
households for increased crop production for food and income. Other fundamental
behavioral change and community life issues will also be addressed such as
sanitation, safe water, HIV/AIDS among others, communities and parents will
also utilize this opportunity when working in the garden to hold meetings and
interact with teachers and pupils for improved quality education
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE
Phase one
- Conducting sub county orientation meetings resulting in buy in of the school garden community empowerment program at sub county level and developing sub county action plans
- Meetings were conducted with parents, school management and other stakeholders to agree on involvement, and participation of parents on school garden, identify the food security enterprise and the lead farmers
- Data collection in the beneficiary schools on pupils enrollment and academic performance
- Designing and planning school garden demonstration plans in relation to the food security issue identified, 19 demonstration sites have been identified, opened and planted with the food security enterprise which is mainly bananas and partly cassava to some few schools in the three sub counties of Nyakiyumbu ( Katholhu, Ndongo SDA, st Matia mulumba, st Andrews, Kyaminyawandi and Muhindi primary schools), Karambi (Karambi, Mirami, Bikunya, Kisolholho, Kamasasa primary schools) and mpondwe Lhubiriha town council (Nyabugando parents, Nyabugando primary, kithalikibi, Bwera demonstration, St mathew and Nyakahya primary schools)
Phase
two
- Identifying 10 to 20 lead farmers in all the 19 schools, site identification and opening and continuation of the school garden in line with the planting cycle is now on going
- Parents replicating adopted best agronomic practices from school gardens to their household gardens
- Follow up of parents and learning processes of both parents and the pupils
- Documentation of best practices and development of case studies, in this case a video documentary is now in place highlighting the key achievements so far registered
LESSONS
Gender representation
Male participation is still very low
in most schools compared to their female counterparts
Adoption rate
Most of the parents trained are trying
do adopt the skills learnt, they have opened their own gardens and thus are
demanding for seedlings
Parents and
teachers participation
Parents now have a platform of sharing
with teachers to discuss academic and performance issues affecting the schools,
we are also very hopeful that the next PLE results will be better compared to
the previous year of 2010 together with pupils retention and hygiene
CHALLENGES
Parental participation in some schools
is still low therefore much effort is still needed to sensitize the parents
about the benefits of the school garden program
Poor climatic conditions especially
the harsh weather which has affected some of the planted banana suckers
Crop diseases for example our cassava
demonstration garden in Kyaminyawandi primary school was hit by cassava streak
disease where we had to uproot the garden prematurely
Negligence by some community members
and parents where some of our banana gardens are being eaten up by goats but
people don’t care
CONTACT PERSONS
Mapoze Selevest
Coordinator BIC
Tel: 0772 977740
BALUKU ZEVERIO
Program focal person
Tel: 0777526338
Marieke vansche
SNV Contact person
Tel: 0754563229
.
