Teachers kick against scrapping Agriculture as major teaching subject

Some teachers in Lawra Municipal and Nandom District of the Upper West Region have kicked against the decision by authorities to scrap Agriculture Science as a major teaching subject in Junior High School (JHS).

The teachers who described the decision as a bad one said even though a few topics had been added to integrated science, it was not enough for students to learn comprehensively about Agriculture and develop an interest in venturing into farming in future.

The Teachers raised the concern during a three-day training workshop on Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) and Agro-ecology (Concepts, Principles and Practices) organised by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD) in Lawra.

The teachers believe that for agriculture to be taught well for the children to appreciate and be willing to choose it as a course of study at the tertiary level or engage in farming as a profession, then, Agriculture must be taught as a full course.

Mr. Daniel Banuoku, a Deputy Director of CIKOD, said if Agriculture was indeed the backbone of Ghana’s economy as being touted by politicians, then it was necessary for school children to start learning agriculture as a major course at the JHS level.

He noted that would enable them to learn and fully appreciate the indispensable role of agriculture and help wet their appetite to either take up Agriculture as a course of study or engage in farming.

“We cannot scrap Agriculture as a major course of study at the basic school level and expect the youth to be interested in Agriculture”, he emphasised.

“All these amount to the lack of commitment to developing the agriculture sector through making the necessary policies and investment”. Mr Banuoku added.

The training was part of the implementation of a project dubbed “Agro-ecology in the Sahel” which is being implemented by CIKOD and ANSD (Feeding without Destroying) in Burkina Faso in partnership with Groundswell International and with funding support from Margaret A. Cargill Foundation.

The objective of the project was to build the capacity of communities to be their own experts and be able to facilitate farmer-to-farmer managed natural regeneration and Agro-ecology.

Participants which were drawn from Lawra Municipal and Nandom Districts included farmers, Traditional authorities, teachers, and staff of Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) among others.