SCHOOL BASED AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION - SBAE
The SBAE system is built around the four components of the agricultural education model: classroom instruction, school demonstration farm, home entrepreneurship projects and leadership development. SBAE provides opportunity for hands-on and practical agriculture development for young people and educators.
Classroom instruction is an experiential learning activity. It offers educators the opportunity to learn new and innovative teaching and learning techniques to engage students. Teacher trainings under this component exposes teachers to more practical ways to manage their classrooms and to incorporate fun activities in their lessons to advance teaching and understanding of learners. Building rapport between educators and learners is crucial to the knowledge acquisition process.
School demonstration farms serve as a tool for hands-on learning and production of food. Establishing school gardens give teachers the chance (used as laboratories) to practice what is being taught in the classroom, and also as means to grow food, raise incomes and to sustain or generate the interest of young people in agriculture. Working alongside other young people help to build healthy social habits among others.
Home Entrepreneurship Projects (HEPs) are means to diffuse innovative agricultural technologies into communities. Through HEPs, club members grow and replicate the good planting protocols learnt in the school demonstration farms at home, exposing it to parents and other smallholder farmers. Club members embark on agricultural projects to grow food whiles earning incomes to support their educational needs. HEPs fosters skills development.
Leadership Development: Every 4H member has the opportunity to participate in club meetings to learn about leadership roles through the Positive Youth Development (PYD) concepts. Elected officers manage the growth of the clubs with backstopping guidance from advisors. Programs such as LEAD (Leadership, Education and Agricultural Development) contests offer club members opportunity to compete in various categories of competitions to show their leadership and public speaking abilities. Annual 4H camp programs give young people time to meet, build connections, learn and have fun activities.
