Hungary’s Heavenly Classrooms

School gardens have been around for a very long time. For centuries, they have been used for teaching botany, gardening and horticulture. However, in recent decades, many of them have grown wild and remained unused despite being a valuable place for students to learn about sustainability, ecology and cooperation.

These benefits have been utilised in a Hungarian project that focuses on the conscious use of natural resources. At the beginning of 2018, the Hungarian Parliament, the Klebelsberg Center and the Ministry of Education conducted a study with 1,118 school gardens throughout Hungary.

It discovered that many educational institutions recognise the importance of school gardens. However, the study also found that many existing gardens face neglect and decay unless they are better integrated into everyday school life. National school garden study A network founded in 2015 aims to improve the integration of school gardens into the teaching methods of various schools. The Hungarian Foundation for School Gardens has around 200 members who support each other by exchanging information. The focus is on exchanging educational concepts that emphasise the cooperative use of school gardens. Since the national school garden study was published, the network has experienced strong growth.

The school garden initiative is primarily run by enthusiastic and committed teachers who have a website, a regular newsletter and a Facebook page for networking and sharing knowledge and experiences. In October 2018, a joint conference resulted in even deeper cooperation between the Foundation and the Deputy State Secretary for Environmental Protection, which will further strengthen Hungary’s school gardens. In addition, the government launched the National School Garden Development Programme. Besides the National Chamber of Agriculture, the international seed company Syngenta was recruited as a partner. In 2019, the Foundation received a grant of huf 50 million from the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture to implement the programme. On the scientific side, the programme is supported by the Faculty of Landscape Design and Settlement Planning of the Szent István University.

One of the first schools to receive funding is the Sándor Csikesz Primary School of the Pécs Reformed Church College. Since 2012, its garden has been used for educational purposes, which is some 1 hectare in size. The school follows an ecological approach and aims to conserve old and local plant varieties. The school plans to sell food grown in the school garden, with a student enterprise to be created for this. eionet.kormany.hu Contact: marta.zita.geller@fm.gov.hu Hungary focuses on the value of school gardens to education.