What a relief it was to hear that Agricultural Science will be kept as part of the Queensland School Curriculum. How is it that we were even considering dumping this from our school system? As the mother of four young children, education is constantly on the mind in our house. Our schools seem to be under so much pressure to achieve literacy and numeracy outcomes and as a result I worry that our kids are not being taught the fundamentals!
Agriculture provides everything we eat, use and wear on a daily basis, but so few children (and adults) truly understand our basic dependence on this one industry. With only a small part of our population living on farms, or having any connection to rural Australia, many children do not understand how their food gets from the farm to their plates, or how much work is involved to get that food. We need balanced education about farming so we can appreciate where food and fibre comes from and the importance of sustainable and secure agriculture for a growing world population. By 2050, there will be 9 billion people on the planet who will need to be fed and clothed by agriculture - does that not in itself tell us we need our kids learning about this industry?
In Australia, demand for agricultural university graduates outweighs supply. We are currently world leaders in sustainable and innovative farming practices but if enrolments in Agriculture decline, and fewer students continue to postgraduate research, Australia could be risking our future food and economic security through neglecting the continued research and development of a sector that is vital to our country.
There is no doubt agriculture suffers from image problems, often viewed as an inferior and non-academic subject. However, Agriculture is an industry that supports hundreds of thousands of Australian jobs and makes a significant contribution to Australia’s economy.
This is all very academic, but if we keep it simple; Agriculture is exciting for kids. They get to learn with animals and plants, with computers, machinery and technology. The sky is the limit for kids when you combine agricultural education with a passion for rural Australia.
Agriculture offers work in cities, the country, laboratories, offices, paddocks or flying drones and driving high tech machinery and equipment. It is a diverse, challenging, innovative, and exciting area and one which I sincerely hope my children get the chance to learn about at school, and have the opportunity to go on to have a fulfilling career in.
