Queensland Education Minister Kate Jones has moved to allay the fears of teachers, students and parents following reports her department was planning to dump agricultural science from its senior school curriculum.
The Queensland Government announced earlier this year that it will introduce a new senior assessment and tertiary entrance system, starting with students entering Year 11 in 2018. The Minister has set up a Senior Secondary Assessment Taskforce to lead the change.
Shadow Minister for Education and Training Tim Mander said the relatively low numbers of students studying senior agriculture had some educators concerned that the Government may opt not to re-write the ag science syllabus to cater for external exams, meaning the subject would not be available to students in Year 11 and 12.
Mr Mander said all parties needed to consider that ag science was only offered at a small number of schools.
“However, at those schools relatively large numbers of students choose to study the subject in their senior years,” he said.
“Given there are more university level jobs in agriculture than there are graduates to fill them, the Palaszczuk Labor Government needs to be expanding the number of schools offering agricultural science.”
But in response to questions from Queensland Country Life this week, Minister Jones said school communities could “be assured that Agricultural Science will continue to be offered in Queensland schools.” Ms Jones did not confirm if it would be offered in senior years.
“Consultation with teachers and the wider education community is an important part of this process,” she said.
One passionate advocate for teaching ag science is Jeff Buchanan who has taught the subject at Downlands College for the past six years.
Mr Buchanan believes the subject is for students who will not go on to university, but who will go back into agriculture either as an employee, or onto family farms.
“For most of these students agricultural science is the only senior science subject they will choose to study, as they find it relevant to them,” he said.
Mr Buchanan said subjects covered in ag science, including basic ruminant nutrition and meat science, gave students a broad understanding of the industry.
- Additional reporting by Helen Walker
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