Opportunities of Botanical Garden in Environmental and Development Education to Support School Based Instruction in Ethiopia

Abstract

The research describes the opportunities and foundational schemes of the first and the only Botanic Garden in supporting the school based environmental education routine in Ethiopia. The main objective of the study were to  systematically evaluate the existing general education Syllabi and the potential of Gullele Botanic Garden (GBG) in supporting quality education and enhancing environmental cognitions in Ethiopia. The study were conducted in Ethiopia at reference center of GBG with benchmarking the existing general education Syllabi. The data were collected through document review, site visits and expert discussion. The study highlighted and observed all relevant contents of competencies in the Syllabi that are required to be associated with the obtainable potential of botanic gardens in supporting the educational system and providing outcome based intensive environmental education delivery. Moreover, special emphasis were given to skills and attitude of their program of study in agreement with the tangible demands and intended audiences. It observes the current school based environmental education demands and the obtainable potential of the botanic garden in providing practical based intensive environmental education delivery. Descriptive statistical were used to analyze and compare the observations of syllabi contents against the identified potential of GBG. Accordingly, 18.0, 24.1and 19.3 percent of the unit category of grades 1-4, 5-8 and 9-12 were found linked with the potential of GBG in respective order. Moreover, 14.6, 23.5% and 11 percent of the sub-unit category of grades 1-4, 5-8 and 9-12 were found linked with the potential of GBG in respective order. The overall analysis shown that 20.7 percent of the unit category and 15.8 percent of the sub-unit category were resulted potentially linked to the botanic garden. Moreover, based on the site visit conducted along with the supplementary document review, 81% of the GBG facilities were found potentially used for educational purpose. Subsequently, 18 foundational educational program were designed on the basis of identified potential of GBG. The key conclusions of the research were that botanic garden play a great role and create a comfortable learning opportunities, processes and settings in acquiring a range of contents and competences related to the environment and development. This study suggested and proposed the initial garden based education program to be tested in the botanic gardens. The research further recommends additional research to be conducted in the area of garden based environmental and green developmental education.

Keywords: Botanic Garden Potential, General Education Syllabi, Environmental Education, Educational Program,