A review of school garden programmes over the past thirty years shows that the functions of school gardens can be classified as “educational” and “economic/food security”.
Educational aims |
increasing the relevance and quality of education for rural and urban children by introducing into the curricula important life skills |
teaching students how to establish and maintain home gardens and encourage the production and consumption of micronutrient-rich fruits and green leafy vegetables | |
providing active learning by linking gardens with other subjects, such as mathematics, biology, reading and writing | |
contributing to increasing access to education by attracting children and their families to a school that addresses topics relevant to their lives | |
improving children's attitudes towards agriculture and rural life | |
teaching environmental issues, including how to grow safe food without using pesticides | |
teaching practical nutrition education in order to promote healthy diets and lifestyles |
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providing students with a tool for survival at times of food shortages | |
Economic and food security aims |
familiarizing school children with methods of sustainable production of food that are applicable to their homestead or farms and important for household food security |
promoting income-generation opportunities | |
improving food availability and diversity | |
enhancing the nutritional quality of school meals | |
reducing the incidence of malnourished children attending school | |
increasing school attendance and compensating for the loss in transfer of “life skills” from parents to children due to the impact of HIV/AIDS and the increasing phenomenon of child-headed households |
