The impact of a school garden program on agriculture learning by primary school children in rural Uganda

Abstract

The FAO of the UN recognizes food-based systems as a platform to address the cornerstones of sustainable development: learning, nutrition, and income. Food security has a strong relationship to primary education and as access to primary education increases, food insecurity decreases. This study measured the impact of a school garden program on agriculture learning of pupils living in a food insecure region of rural Uganda and aimed to identify if the pupils acquire agriculture knowledge and skills through a school garden program. Agriculture learning of pupils attending a school with a school garden program or attending a school without a garden was investigated through three methods: 1) analyzing exam scores of pupils completing primary school grade 7 from two schools, 2) evaluating preand post-test scores over an agriculture topic taught in the national curriculum, and 3) administering a questionnaire of pupils. PLE scores showed improvement at NPS in the period after implementation of the school garden and decreased in the school without a school garden program. Differences in preand post-test achievement were not found between schools; however gender was found to have an impact on achievement. The survey results of 64 children identified themes in gender, age, prior garden experience, and school 1 Graduate Student, Department of Horticulture, Iowa State University 2 University Professor, Department of Horticulture, Iowa State University