Research Study for School Gardening: Practices, models and stakeholder participation in Uganda 2024

A vast majority (94.3%) of the schools in Wakiso district have established school gardens which shows the commitment for schools to practice school gardening. Notably, almost all (95.4%) the studied schools have functional gardens. Concerning the implemented models, most (74.2%) schools reported to be implementing
school/teacher led approach compared to the parent led Approach that was implemented by the minority (25.8%). The majority of the schools were growing staple crops such as maize (83.3%), vegetables (63.6%), beans (63.6) and bananas (59.9%). The primary purpose of the school gardens was reported to be school feeding (78.8%) which shows that schools are committed to proper feeding of learners. Among the key features were irrigation structures that were adopted by half of the surveyed schools.

Quantitative data was collected from 213 parents, 342 learners and 65 teachers using the quantitative survey tool. In addition, the study team employed Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to corroborate and substantiate information found in documents and other sources. An interview guide was prepared for each category of respondents and administered by experienced qualitative research team. The FGD and KII participants were mobilized by project team who worked closely with them during the interventions. In total, 4 KIIs and 15 FGDs were conducted during the study.

From the findings, majority of the parents are motivated because they want to improve food supply for the schools (84.8%) followed by the urge to support their children’s education (80.8%), 61.6% reported that they wanted to gain agricultural knowledge and skills, 33.8% wanted to improve community relationships, 33.3% revealed that they were motivated due to the financial benefits through VSLA while 10.1% were motivated because of other reasons such as their interest in gardening.

Based on the findings, both boys and girls who participate in school gardening have a strong positive attitude towards working in the school gardens with 67.6% of learners who reported that they like working in the gardens a lot. The learners were also able to highlight some of the benefits of school gardens and among these, 87.8% of learners reported that the school gardens helped them learn better, 87.2% believed that school gardens positively influenced their eating habits while 77% revealed that they feel a stronger connection to nature due to their involvement in school gardening.

Best practices and lessons learnt
✓ Providing training for both teachers and parents on gardening practices improves the effectiveness of school
gardening activities and also fosters sustainability due to the gained knowledge and skills.
✓ Strengthening support systems and creating partnerships enhances success of school gardening since these
play a role in solving overarching challenges such as limited tools and inputs
✓ Active engagement of school administration and support enhances success of school gardening programs since these are pivotal to providing the necessary resources, offering support supervision and building networks with external stakeholders.
✓ Engaging parents and the neighbouring communities in school gardening programs is vital to its effectiveness since these bring on board their expertise and provide market for school grown produce which in turn enhances community-school relationships.
✓ Actively engaging learners in school gardening programs enhances agricultural benefits not only to the school but also to the community since they are able to transfer the knowledge and skills obtained from
school to their homes.