School garden program to expand in Southeast Asia

LOS BAÑOS, Philippines — A highly successful school garden program piloted in Laguna is set to be expanded to cover other schools in Southeast Asia.

Ranking officials of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization have approved for endorsement to the SEAMEO Council (SEAMEC) the “School and Home Gardens Program” which has chalked up significant accomplishments during its first preliminary phase of 18 months.

The SEAMEO-High Officials Meeting (HOM) concurred on the upscaling of the school gardens program during its 40th meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, on Nov. 28-30.             

Owing to its significant accomplishments, the program was upscaled to cover 15 more elementary schools and three high schools in the same five towns and one city which are the sites of the participating schools.

During the SEAMEO-HOM meeting in Thailand, education officials commended SEARCA Director Gil Saguiguit Jr. for the center’s efforts “to develop and demonstrate in pilot schools in Laguna how school gardens can address the health status of school children as well as its potential for experiential  and even economic well-being of their families and communities.”

More important, Saguiguit added that school gardens introduce to children an early appreciation of agriculture.

“Agriculture — key to food security and poverty alleviation — could be greatly affected with diminishing interest in it, especially among the youth,” he stressed.

The six pilot schools include LES, which recently won the SEAMEO-Japan ESD award 2017 for its school gardens project supported by SEARCA, Department of Education - Laguna and the University of the Philippines Los Baños.

The pilot schools will be “the epicenter of trainings and capacity-building activities to transfer the concept to schools in neighboring Southeast Asian countries,” Saguiguit said.

The SEAMEO-HOM applauded SEARCA under the leadership of Saguiguit for initiating such education and development innovations in Southeast Asia.

SEAMEO is an inter-government treaty body founded in 1965 to promote cooperation in education, science and culture among Southeast Asian nations. It is now composed of the 11 Southeast Asian countries.

The organization’s highest policymaking body is SEAMEC, which is composed of the education ministers of the member states.

The Philippines is represented in the council by Education Secretary Leonor Briones.