AGRICULTURAL VALUE CHAIN AND TEACHER PREPARATION FOR EFFECTIVE VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE DELIVERY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

Agriculture occupies a strategic position in the socio-economic development of the nation, and so its study under formal education should be complete, current and functional. As a vocational subject in secondary schools, its teaching should be competency-based such that learners acquire mastery of the learning experiences which make them proficient in agricultural operations. Agricultural innovations have to be promptly introduced into a flexible school curriculum to enable learners imbibe them. Since curriculum is usually reviewed after a long time, innovations in agriculture may not be promptly incorporated into school curriculum. The Agricultural Transformation Agenda of 2013 emphasized value chain in agriculture which gained traction with farmers, but was not immediately incorporated into school agriculture curriculum. The traditional system of education which does not encourage mastery of learning experiences should be replaced with the competency-based system of education. This paper addresses the challenges of incorporating agricultural value chain into the study of agriculture in schools using the competency-based approach.