School Gardens Education Plan through the Awareness of Elementary and Middle School Parents

Background and objective: This study was conducted on the value and operation of school garden education. It will be presented as basic data in considering the necessity of a policy for revitalizing school gardens and financial support, and can be used to find ways to facilitate education through school gardens. Methods: The collected data were analyzed using the 𝒙 2 test to obtain the frequency and weight of each measurement item, and the importance of each value was calculated by giving it a relative weight and directly evaluated so that the sum of importance was 100%. Results: In terms of the effectiveness of each value indicator of school gardens, parents of children who had experienced school gardens perceived them as having educational value (4.35 points) and parents of children who had not experienced school gardens perceived them as having health value (4.38 points). The average amount parents were willingness to pay voluntarily as a fee for school garden programs was 5,889 won and the highest amount was 30,000 won, and the average amount of government budget support parents saw as appropriate was 6,705 won and the highest was 100,000 won. Regarding the appropriate rate of education tax increase from the current rate of 30% the maximum percentage acceptable was 0.531-0.545%. Both parents of elementary and middle school students answered that educational value is the most important of the specific values of school garden service. Regarding the necessity of expanding school garden education, 89.8% of parents answered that the trend of increasing school garden education is appropriate, 93.2% answered that they were willing to have their children participate in school garden education in the future, and 81.2% answered that they would like to participate in school garden education in the future. Conclusion: The creation and utilization of school gardens is expected to continue to increase due to the diverse values and social atmospheres of school gardens, and this study provides policy data to vitalize school garden education in the future.