Why Agricultural Science must be compulsory subject in Nigerian schools

By Vincent Asogwa, PhD 

The skyrocketing unemployment rate in Nigeria has triggered much hunger, poverty, insecurity, social instability, political crises, home, and gender-based violence. Ironically, the federal government has failed to understand that the grand cause of increasing rate of unemployment for a decade now is the removal of Agricultural Science as a compulsory subject in Senior Secondary Education.

Agricultural Science was removed as a compulsory subject and made optional with other related subjects like Fishery and Animal Husbandry since 2012, not minding the implication of such decision on the society. Going by the current unemployment rate which has risen from 27.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, to 33 per cent 2021, and the increasing cases of crop farmers-herders crises in Nigeria, the government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, needs to review the decision. 

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Why Agricultural Science must be compulsory subject in Nigerian schools

In 2006, NBS/CBN put it that culturally, agriculture is the only common heritage across Nigeria which makes it an agrarian country with about 70 per cent of her over 140 million people engaged in agricultural production. Therefore, it was incorrect for the Nigeria Education Research and Development Council to equate Agricultural Science with other elective subjects, bearing in mind that every human being needs four-square meals daily. 

The population of the country is increasing without commensurate youths’ entry into agriculture, meaning that, the total food quantity demand will soon outweigh the total food quantity supply in Nigeria. The solution might be found through a revisiting of Senior Secondary School curriculum. 

Agricultural Science provides an interface with all other science subjects like Biology, Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which Nigeria is a signatory. 

The teaching of Agricultural Science should not be sacrificed for other subjects because it is the only way to transfer our common cultural heritage of food production to our younger generation for sustainability of humanity in Nigeria.  

Since 2012, being the curriculum review year, the rate of unemployment geometrically increases yearly because the rate of graduation is greater than the rate of youths’ engagement into employment. Agriculture, being our cultural heritage and the largest sector of the economy that can accommodate this population, still needs more labour.

Researchers have observed that the removal of Agricultural Science as compulsory subject has led to  youth’s apathy towards agriculture, inability of secondary school graduates to be admitted into agricultural related courses or  secure any paid or self-paid agricultural occupation.

Unfortunately, these issues contradict the objectives of Agricultural Science at the Senior Secondary School which are to stimulate and sustain students’ interest in Agriculture, enable students acquire basic knowledge and practical skills in agriculture, enable students integrate knowledge with skills in agriculture, among others.

The most devastating aspect of it is that the most affected by the scenario being discussed are the youth between the ages of 12 and 18 which coincides with the identity versus confusion stage- psychologically regarded as the fifth stage of ego. This stage is important as the behaviour of the youth often seems unpredictable and impulsive in trying to develop a sense of strong or personal identity and direction in life. It involves committing to a particular identity or career path like Agriculture, deciding what social groups to associate with, and even developing a sense of personal style. So, the removal of Agricultural Science as a compulsory subject in senior secondary School at this age bracket (12-18), makes it difficult for the government to reorient and stimulate secondary school leavers’ interest from 2012 till date into sustainable agricultural production.

It is evident that governments and non-governmental organisations are making tremendous efforts to empower youths from both secondary and tertiary education through training on entrepreneurship but, it is only a follow-up study that will prove to the stakeholders that this effort is not a mirage. Most of the empowered youths easily leave the job as quickly as they entered it for lack of grand value, interest, and motivation in Agriculture. 

The problem of unemployment in Nigeria and other African countries is not laziness, lack of job opportunities, or lack of employable skills as claimed by some writers but inconsistent and wrong policy formulation. While both government and non-governmental organisations continue to train and empower the unemployed youths into Agriculture, there is an urgent need for a reversal of the secondary education curriculum to the initial policy of Agriculture Science being a compulsory subject. 

The curriculum should then be structured with consistency and continuity starting from nursery school to tertiary institutions. However, it should integrate 21st-century skills and entrepreneurship. Besides, all the public colleges of education and universities in Nigeria need to establish Agricultural Education Programme for a continuous supply of well-trained teachers to the nursery, primary and secondary schools for sustainable agriculture experiences in .