Recently, students in many schools in Suzhou are experiencing the joy of harvesting the vegetables, fruits, crops or Chinese herbs they have been taking care of in the small farms in their campuses. It is learnt that the school-based farms came out in the wake of the Chinese Ministry of Education’s call early this year for enhancing efforts in fostering students’ hard-working spirit and hands-on skills.

 

So far, it has become a common practice in Suzhou-based primary and middle schools to incorporate farming practices into their curriculums. Students in these schools are encouraged to grow various plants by themselves with the knowledge they have learnt in classroom.

For example, each class of the fourth and fifth graders in SIP Lianhua School is responsible for a piece of the vegetable plot in their school, while the students in Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Affiliated School are growing cottons, rice and other crops in their farm.

“The farming activities allow the students to gain not only farming skills but also teamwork abilities,” said Wang Ming, principal of SIP Lianhua School. Many other school heads agreed, adding that it is also a good way to educate students to cherish the fruit of hard work as well as enhance their knowledge on natural science and their creativity in solving different challenges.