Title: Agricultural Education in Africa: Managing Change
Abstract: Change is a fact of life. In most parts of Africa food security is still a critical issue and therefore food production will continue to be a major focus of universities and other agricultural education institutions for some time to come. The delivery of quality education and training is, as we have seen, a major challenge in view of decreased funding, higher student intakes, decreasing levels of funding, and loss of key experienced teaching and research staff. However, it is important to be conscious of other changes that impact on agricultural education and present further challenges to its relevance. One of the current challenges to agricultural education is how to meet the challenge of providing education and training for rural development rather than for agriculture alone. It is clear that the older curriculum that concentrated on production agriculture is no longer able to produce educated people who can deal with the wider problems of rural development. The change influences cited above, and there are others, pose a threat and a challenge to agricultural education institutions. Although the task of improving the basic conditions and quality of undergraduate degree programs is a daunting challenge in itself, the new influences cannot be ignored. There are many experienced and well-meaning individuals, organizations and firms who can offer advice on how best to bring about change in African agricultural universities and agricultural education systems but, at the end of the day, it is the institutions themselves that must take the initiative.
Publication Year: 2000
Publication Date: 2000-09-06
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 22
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