Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has revealed that even though the country continues to tout Agriculture as a game changer for Ghana’s economy, there is no degree programme in Ghana’s Technical Universities for Agriculture students who want to pursue Agriculture in our Technical Universities.
He bemoaned the current system whereby students desirous of pursuing Agriculture in universities are required to have read Physics, Biology and Chemistry at the Senior High School(SHS) level but not courses in General Agriculture such as Horticulture and Animal Husbandry.
He disclosed that even though he has had discussions with the Minister of Education on this sad situation of General Agriculture students, nothing has changed.
“Two years ago, i told the Minister of Education that, we cannot be preaching Agric to the youth and expect them to participate when the entry requirement to pursue BSC Agric is Physics, Chem, Biology and Not Agric at WASSCE.
Those who are offered agric in Universities are usually disappointed medicine, nursing, pharmacy students who are given agric as consolation which is mostly refused or accepted with disinterest. So agric students in SHS who have the passion to nurture a career in agriculture never have an oppprtunity to study for a BSC Agriculture degree after SHS. Sadly, no Technical University runs a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Agriculture too. Till date, nothing has changed, to the best of my knowledge,” he revealed.
He noted that the current situation of agricultural production is dire and ways have to be adopted to ensure that ageing agricultural producers are replaced.
“The agriculture revolution cannot be won with talk and hope; we have an ageing agric labour force to retire, and this cannot happen without creating progression paths for the youth within the Agriculture career map, else, we are failing in mobilizing demand for agriculture training at the tertiary level and worsening unemployment,” he stressed.
For him, a BTech Agriculture programmed must be introduced in our Technical Universities for students of General Agriculture who wish to continue with Agriculture at the tertiary level.
“The Minister of State (Tertiary) must work with the NCTE and NAB (Tertiary Education Commission) to ensure Technical Universities run a BTech Agriculture programme,” he recommended.
Africa Education Watch has become a leading voice on matters of Education in the country, even though it is a relatively new civil society organization.
