Education for Sustainable Development in Agriculture at Primary Schools

抄録

Even a small plot or container garden applying sustainable agriculture can help children learn basic ecological principles. In urban living, a garden maybe the best connection for young people to nature; especially it may affect to their community, making the connection between suitable agriculture and their parents or their future activities. The study was conducted to access the perception of school children at primary school through the series of training provided towards sustainable agriculture and environmental education. Series of training were delivered to school children selected from five primary schools: two from Prey Chhor district, Kampong Cham province and other three from Phnom Penh. Totally, there were about 200 children that participated from the selected primarily schools in each training. Before and after the training provided, as well as interviews at each step, the understanding of school children on sustainable agriculture and environment was evaluated; the results showed that the understanding of composting materials were increased, also the perception and the motivation increased with the training including practical demonstration. Noticeably, after the training on compost making, school children had learned the ways of how the compost is made and what the chemicals meant to them and their communities. We also observed that a number of school children started to collect the organic materials for their school's compost boxes. Moreover, the results from their vegetable gardening gave evidence that the understanding of school children on agriculture and environment was increased and it was applicable to their villages and the communities close to their places. Based on the findings obtained and our observation, the series of training on sustainable agriculture and environment to school children at primary schools are effective to the rural villages for their livings and income generation. This may be also helpful to the community effort in sustainable agriculture and environment as a whole.