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Recently, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) had organized a brainstorming session on ‘Mainstreaming agricultural curriculum in school education’ with experts from ICAR, NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) and CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) in order to introduce Agriculture as a Subject in Course Curriculum and provide the option for students to explore a career in the various arenas of agriculture. Agricultural education in all the schools in the country is likely to play a key role in preparing farmers, researchers, and educators, to make positive contributions, it was stated during the session.
While discussing the approaches to having Agriculture as a subject in primary schools, Bergmann (1985) had identified three approaches viz., the vocational/pre-vocational training approach, the science-related approach and the extensionist approach.
In the extensionist approach, the orientation towards ‘teaching in the classroom’ will be on covering the recommendations of the extension service, while the ‘orientation towards school farm work’ will be on demonstration of extension recommendations & aiming at high yields as detailed below:
Aims: School leavers to have confidence in the extension service and to be ready to follow their advice.
Syllabus: Content to be
exclusively agricultural , common core of basic knowledge , regional options
open according to the regional programmes of the extension service.
Teaching methods: Largely
lecturing, use of extension aids and farm items (plants, animals) as teaching
aids. Teaching will be closely related to farm work.
School farm work: Partly production for income; practice as a drill for skill
development according to extension recommendations. School farm to serve as a
demonstration plot for the community.
Resource persons needed besides regular primary
teachers: Extension service staff on a regular basis.
Compared to the other two approaches mentioned above, when the extensionist approach is followed, the primary school teachers need not master the scientific bases of agriculture. The extension service would provide assistance for difficult demonstrations. Though this approach has its demerits such as not relating agriculture to science and could be handled by teachers with minimum agricultural knowledge and skills, it can be used in conjunction with other approaches.
This issue of JEE has papers on topics such as the role of organizations in boosting agricultural production towards meeting household nutrition, Socio-economic prospects & major constraints of vannamei shrimp farming and work -life balance of women entrepreneurs. Do send your feedback on these papers to editorextension@gmail.com.