Soil Health Starts in Education

CURIOSOIL Project is part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme and supports EU Mission Soil: A Soil Deal for Europe. The project’s mission is to embed soil health into national education systems, from primary schools to lifelong learning.

A study conducted across 17 countries (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Turkey) reveal that while higher education and vocational programmes often cover soil-related topics and some soil-related learning still occurs at primary level, awareness in secondary schools is limited, with secondary education highlighted as a particularly difficult stage. The study identifies major gaps between policy ambitions and classroom practice Teachers cite lack of training, time constraints, rigid timetables, limited budgets, and institutional inertia as key barriers to integrating soil health into lessons.

Grassroots Innovation Meets Institutional Inertia

Soil education shows significant variation across different geographical contexts. In rural areas, programmes are comprehensive, focusing on agriculture, sustainable farming, soil fertility, and erosion prevention, with farmers benefiting from vocational schools, government schemes, and EU-funded initiatives. By contrast, urban soil education is less structured and often integrated into broader topics such as green spaces, contamination, and climate resilience.

Stakeholder groups also experience soil education differently. Farmers are the most consistently engaged, while urban planners and architects encounter soil topics within workshops or sustainable urban planning courses. Policy makers and regulators, in turn, are mainly trained in soil legislation and EU directives.

These variations highlight key gaps and challenges. Urban and industrial soil education remains underdeveloped compared to rural programmes, and the fragmented nature of soil education, across both geographical contexts and stakeholder groups, limits its effectiveness.

Despite the gaps, local initiatives and community-based projects are thriving. Schools, NGOs, and local authorities are using gardens, outdoor classrooms, and practical workshops to teach pupils about soil’s vital role in food production, biodiversity, and climate resilience. Examples include Austria’s Soil Learning Trails, France’s Living Soils network, and Finland’s curriculum linking soil to sustainable development.

A Generational Shift

Embedding soil awareness in education is a long-term effort. Experts recommend layered interventions: supporting grassroots initiatives, aligning national policies with European soil goals, and integrating soil health into education curricula, urban planning, and lifelong learning frameworks. Professional educators, as extensions of parents and caregivers, could become key players in this transition. Awareness raising is a start, but meaningful change will take decades.

Next Steps

Together with findings from related initiatives surveying educators’ attitudes toward soil education, CURIOSOIL emphasises the need for systemic reform: updating curricula, improving teacher training, and creating more hands-on learning environments both indoors and outdoors.

To move soil education forward across Europe, CURIOSOIL project will organize national workshops and conferences that will bring together experts to reflect on findings, share best practices, and identify tailored policy recommendations. These recommendations will be presented at both national and international events, fostering dialogue and collaboration.

Ongoing engagement with educators, policymakers, and communities will be essential to track progress, update analyses, and adapt strategies. By supporting grassroots initiatives, coordinating nationally, and embedding soil literacy across educational pathways, Europe can strengthen soil stewardship and prepare future generations to safeguard this vital resource.

Encouragingly, the “time is right”: across all countries there is strong willingness to act, vibrant grassroots initiatives are emerging, and soil health is increasingly linked to climate, biodiversity, and sustainability agendas. However, experts stress that meaningful change will take decades and will require coordinated action across education, policy, research, and society.