SD: Knowledge : Agricultural Education and Training:Issues and Opportunities

Posted May 1997

Agricultural Education and Training:
Issues and Opportunities - Part IV

Conclusions and recommendations

The changing role of agriculture and implications for agricultural education

Agriculture will remain a major contributor to the economies of most countries, particularly in the developing regions. In many countries, however, its share of the GDP will progressively decline.The agricultural sector is undergoing rapid changes as a consequence of both technological progress and economic forces which call for an increased market focus, competitiveness and higher productivity.

Employment opportunities in the off-farm sector are expected to increase at a faster rate than in agriculture. This will further emphasize the present employment shift of agricultural graduates to related sectors, requiring a revision of existing curricula to better address educational needs. Furthermore, agricultural education curricula need to be redirected to more specifically address national problems.This reorientation should incorporate both the new role of market-oriented agriculture as well as issues of direct relevance to the improvement of subsistence agriculture and rural poverty.

All the round tables and expert consultations considered ways to make agricultural education institutions, particularly universities, active promoters of change within their environments. The working document, An Agricultural University for the 21st Century, presented at the round table for Asia/Pacific, outlined three ways to view education institutions:

As having little contact with, or influence on, their external environment;
As responding to a continuing assortment of pressures and requests from an external environment; and
As active users or organizers of their environment.

The majority of agricultural universities seem to fall into the first category. A smaller number appear to follow the second model and only very few universities are in the third category. A challenge facing many universities over the next decade will be to move towards the third model, i.e. to take an increasingly pro-active role rather than passively reacting to circumstances. While universities have an opportunity to greatly influence their environments through the technology that they are capable of generating, political support from national governments is often a prerequisite to the process. Agricultural universities have made significant contributions when they have joined together research, teaching and extension functions.

The challenge for the next century is to move:

From production to productivity;
From immediate needs to long-term sustainability;
From disciplinary to interdisciplinary teaching and research;
From a commodity to a system focus;
From reactive to pro-active organisation;
From hierarchical organisations to participatory ones; and
From agricultural universities to universities for rural development.

Key recommendations are:

Global issues

The key recommendations presented by the round tables and expert consultations focused on a number of topics, many of which were outlined in this report. Individual recommendations are more fully documented in the various meeting reports. While many of the recommendations are based on general principles which are widely applicable, some will need to be adapted to the specific conditions and educational systems in individual countries. The recommendations presented by the round tables and expert consultations include:

Government policy
- The necessity for governments to promote education systems and institutions which are open, flexible and capable of efficiently adapting to changes in the environment.
- The need for a clear definition of overall agricultural priorities and policy the role that agricultural education and training must play within this policy, and objectives for the agricultural education system and its institutions.
- The need for a comprehensive inventory and evaluation of education institutions, and a rational system for geographical coverage by institutions at national and regional levels.
International cooperation
- The need to improve the structuring, coordination and rationalization of international cooperation, particularly at the regional level.
- The need to strengthen horizontal cooperation between countries with the same level of development, through inter-institutional agreements, development of networks of scientific and higher education and exchanges of researchers, teachers, students.
- The need to rationalize and strengthen inter-country organizations on a regional basis.
- The need to maintain, and in some cases strengthen, the co-operation between industrialized and developing countries, including countries in transition from centrally planned to free market economies; safeguards need to be set in place to avoid 'brain drain'.
- The necessity for better co-operation and co-ordination among international organizations and between them and NGOs.
Agricultural education institutions
- The need to make student recruitment methods more flexible in order to offer rural youth, particularly rural women, more opportunities for admission to the various levels of agricultural education.
- The necessity for improved staff recruitment methods and improved pre-service and in-service training at all levels.
- The need for higher professional recognition and opportunities to improve career prospects.
- The necessity for better and closer links between education and employment in order to meet the actual needs of the region or the country through an adaptation of curricula and teaching methods to meet these needs.
- The necessity to introduce into curricula new subjects and techniques.
- The need for institutions to develop educational methods adapted to the various needs of different target populations. These methods should include continuing education, modular courses, distance learning and non-formal education techniques.
- The need to organize on the pedagogy of agricultural education.
- Better links between education, research and extension; and
- Improved financial, administrative and educational autonomy.

Specific regional issues

The regional round tables suggested the creation of a number of regional organizations:

The round table for Asia and the Pacific suggested selecting a school, a college and a university in the region to develop and test innovative programmes and curricula through the Asian Association of Agricultural Colleges and Universities (AACU) for the benefit of the whole region.
The round table for French-speaking Africa strongly supported the creation of a Higher Institute for Agricultural Pedagogy, following a pattern similar to the one of the Interstate Schools. This institute would be responsible for collection of information, experimentation and training in agricultural education.
The round table for Latin America recommended that the various international organizations support and strengthen the Latin American Association for Higher Agricultural Education (ALEAS) in view of the role it plays in co-ordinating pedagogical experiments, exchange of information and experience, organization of study travels, staff exchanges, etc.
The round table for Central and Eastern Europe proposed the formation of a European Association of Higher Agricultural Education responsible for promoting exchanges between West, Central and Eastern regions of the continent.
The round table for English-speaking Africa observed that various centres or institutions have been established at sub-regional or regional levels to foster co-operation in training and higher level education and that some of these have become ineffective. Thus, the round table recommended pooling the resources and rationalizing co-operation and co-ordination at the sub- regional levels (East - South - West)
The round table for the Near East recommended the creation of academic networks and inter-institutional relationships charged with organizing joint programmes of research and exchanges of educational information.
The round table for the English-speaking Caribbean recommended that some regional institutions, or national institutions with regional responsibilities, be strengthened and suggested the creation of a number of regional training programmes: a Technology and Management oriented B.Sc; a school of post graduate studies in Tropical Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Food Sciences; a Caribbean Institute of Technology and Agribusiness Development (technical and vocational level).
The round table for Portuguese-speaking Africa proposed the creation of a network to promote the exchange of information among teachers and students and the development of teaching materials and methodologies.

Principles for developing an FAO strategy in support of agricultural education and training

The problems, examples and recommendations presented by the various round tables as well as the observations and conclusions of the 1991 and 1993 expert consultations can be summarized and developed as a 'charter' for FAO concerning its agricultural education and training support policy.

Basic principles
- To promote agricultural education programmes which are job-oriented and meet the actual needs of the communities, the regions and the countries.
- To distinguish agricultural education from training for public service, thereby fostering training aimed at meeting the needs of the private sector and preparing students for entrepreneurship.
- To support and promote agreements and co-operation/co-ordination at inter-institutional and international levels, particularly in exchange of faculty members, students, information and experiences.
- To promote the integration of population, environmental and sustainable development themes into agricultural education and extension programmes.
- To place a greater emphasis on developing more relevant curriculum, improving the quality of instruction and promoting better institutional management.
Primary and secondary level education
- To promote research, experimentation and implementation in rural education systems which makes use of the experiences and the natural and social environments of rural youth, and
- to examine current modules where elementary and secondary schools have successfully included agriculture in the curriculum.
Technical and vocational education and training
- To promote technical and vocational education institutions whose programmes, structures and teaching methods are oriented towards local problems and the needs of small and medium-size farm families, and which work in close collaboration with rural communities, development structures and service agencies or firms.
- To promote education systems which mobilize the potential of the local environment in educational activities, through use of public or private resource persons, extensionists, researchers, farmers, etc.
- To promote technical and vocational schools which give priority to non-formal education and training over conventional teaching methods.
- To promote agricultural education systems which include youth education, adult training and continuing education in a co-ordinated way to make the best use of facilities, equipment and staff.
- To promote the organisation of a system of pre-service and in-service training for agricultural teachers and instructors which would also be open to part-time and occasional teachers.
- To encourage the organisation of an integrated modular education system which allows the exchange of students among schools offering differing specializations.
Higher agricultural education
- To follow, in matters of higher education, the same general principles: to address local needs and adapt curricula to employment needs; integrate or closely collaborate with research and extension; to be open to the professional environment and make use of resources from the private sector.
- To organise, as far as possible, an integrated modular structure of teaching, which:
  - Sub-contracts some subjects to the faculties of general education (basic sciences, law, etc.);
  - Offers the students a large range of courses; and
  - Opens some modules to continuing education.
- To support inter-institutional agreements for specializations and facilitate the sharing of information (scientific, technical or pedagogic issues) as well as exchange of teachers and students.
- To promote systems and structures which allow staff flexibility among higher education, research and extension activities.
- To actively promote participatory teaching methods using case studies, problem-solving approaches, group working and interdisciplinary approaches.
- To promote more relevant and efficient teaching programmes through regular reviews of curricula and systematic feedback from employers and former graduates.
- To promote the adoption of a systems approach in teaching programmes enabling graduates to comprehend agriculture as a system comprised of technical, economic, social and cultural elements.
- To promote contractual links between faculties and universities for the creation of sub-regional or regional networks organised through Advanced Research and Training Centres; such networks can link institutions both within and between developed and developing countries. Research and Training Centres in Agricultural Pedagogy should be involved in these networks.
- To promote an understanding by students of key management principles such as decision-making skills, planning techniques and the use of suitable technologies (computers etc.).
- To promote projects and actions for training and improvement of teaching staff.

Special considerations

In some countries, or regions within countries, special attention needs to be paid to rural youth, particularly young women, to assist them in qualifying for admittance at every level of agricultural education and training.
Special attention should be given to problems of less developed countries (or less developed regions within some countries) where concern for employment, community participation and external relationships are particularly important and difficult. Special situations in those regions, such as use of local/non-official language, out-of-school youth education, nomadic or semi-nomadic education, may require special solutions and non-conventional teaching methods.
Use of external assistance, particularly financial assistance, should be considered only when all possible local resources have been explored and the possible consequences of external assistance (recurrent cost, brain drain, etc.) evaluated.
To further examine the need for specialized regional centres for advanced study and to promote greater north/south and south/south interaction and collaboration among educational institutions.
Electronic information systems and the application of these new systems to different forms of distance learning in agriculture should be given special consideration as a way to improve the effectiveness of pre-service and in-service education.