From next year, the Agriculture and Food Security (AgFS) will be regularised as an optional subject for classes IX to XII. The curriculum will integrate education with agriculture and prepare the children for self-employment opportunity in the agriculture sector.
According to the Population and Housing Census of Bhutan (PHCB) 2017, unemployment among the youth aged between 15 and 24 is 10.6 per cent. But many of those in the age group still do not see farming or becoming an agriculturist as a means of employment.
“A student can pick up farming as an enterprise and be self-employed or they can pursue further studies in agriculture sciences,” Tayan Raj Gurung (PhD), the specialist at Department of Agriculture, said.
“Having educated youth, who knows about agriculture subject or any natural environment helps in building a citizen aware of the country’s economic status, the importance of agriculture, food self-sufficiency and security.”
The AgFS subject was first started in 2013 at 20 schools. At present, there are 4,000 students studying AgFS in 45 schools across the country. However, the schools are faced with the lack of specialized teachers to teach the subject.
“I have been teaching the subject for last two years.Teachers teaching agriculture subject have to teach their own specialized subjects. We don’t have teachers who are particularly trained in agriculture,” Udai N Bhattarai, the Principal of Tashidingkha Central School in Punakha, said.
To address the issue, the task force comprising of members from education and agriculture ministries, and Royal Education Council (REC) are planning to propose on recruiting graduates from the College of Natural Resources (CNR) to teach the subject.
“Some of the CNR lecturers are involved in developing our curriculum, so if CNR graduates are recruited, trained and deployed to teach the subject, they will be able to teach the subject better,” Wangchuk Rabten, the Curriculum Specialist of REC, said.
Until the schools get trained specialized teachers, the REC will conduct frequent professional development programs for those teachers teaching the curriculum. So far, more than 1000 teachers are trained in the AgSF.
