Durban - Passing knowledge and experience from one young generation to the next should be embraced by all ages.
To promote knowledge sharing, Glenridge Pre-Primary School and Durban High School (DHS) started working together on a gardening initiative called Growing Together last month.
“It’s crucial to teach children about gardening and care for the environment from a very young age so this becomes part of their own value system as they grow. This project embodies the Glenridge philosophy ‘Education for Life’ by teaching skills of sustainable living and establishing values of respecting the environment and its resources,” said Glenridge Pre-Primary School principal Irmarie van der Westhuizen.
“The project will include preparation of the garden area and soil, nursing and planting of seedlings, care and maintenance of the garden, harvesting and sale of produce. Some obstacles that will have to be overcome include natural pest prevention/ control, safeguarding the vegetables against monkeys, rainwater harvesting to water the garden and establishing a compost heap.”
Van der Westhuizen, who is overseeing the project, said the goal was to establish a flourishing vegetable garden at Glenridge. Any proceeds raised from selling the produce would be reinvested into the development and care of the vegetable garden.
Part of the plan is to incorporate it into their curriculum. This would align with the Eco-Schools programme ‒ an international programme of the Foundation for Environmental Education ‒ to create awareness and action around environmental sustainability in schools and their communities as well as supporting Education for Sustainable Development in the national curriculum.
The Eco-Schools programme has been implemented in 59 000 schools in 68 countries. Since 2003, the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa has supported environmental conservation in schools nationwide.
“The Eco-School programme accredits schools that make a commitment to continuously improve their school’s environmental performance. Glenridge has attained award level ‘Platinum 2’ and is working towards ‘Platinum 3’ accreditation. To achieve this, we’re doing a minimum of six eco-school-themed projects.
“Our Growing Together gardening project will fall under the theme of ‘biodiversity and nature’ is theme, which focuses on the variety of life on Earth and how humans depend on and affect it. Other projects include a beach clean-up as a ‘marine and coast’ project, and recycling as a ‘waste’ project. Every project must be planned, executed, and taught in the curriculum and a Portfolio of Evidence is submitted at the end of the year,” said Van der Westhuizen.
Head of community service at Durban High School, Giselle Joshua, said they were happy to get involved.
“It’s essential to instil this in our pupils. With products so readily available today, they are so distanced from understanding the importance of the environment and taking care of it to benefit from it. Claude Pillai (Growing Together project manager) was kind enough to tell me about the exciting environmental project that Glenridge Pre-Primary wanted to start, and we were happy to get involved.”
Joshua, who had previously worked with Pillai, said the project would also develop teamwork skills.
She added that community service is part of their curriculum.
“Every morning, we run an Elective Programme of which Community Engagement is one of the subjects offered, in which I train the boys in how to initiate and create projects that can benefit our community.”
The Independent on Saturday