Govt schools may soon train students in agriculture

NEW DELHI: The gover nment could soon introduce vocational courses re l at e d to the agriculture sector from Class VI onwards to push Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Skill India mission and arrest the school drop- out rate besides boosting the farm economy.

Under consideration of the human resource development (HRD) ministry are courses that could provide information and expertise in organic farming and familiarise students with the latest technology. Students at government schools undertaking these courses would be gainfully employed in the farm sector even if they did not get formal jobs, officials said, adding private schools, could also offer such programmes later.

“Close to 50% of our population is rural and depends on agriculture and hence there is a high employment potential in this field. The young popula- tion needs to be taught about the new scientific tools that are available to ensure if they take to farming it is more productive,” a senior ministry official said. “For instance, they can be taught about seed production, water conservation and harvesting among other skills.”

The issue came up for discussion at a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education’s (CABE) committee on skill and technical education in schools and higher education recently. Vocational education at present is introduced from Class IX and X. Officials said it could start from Class VI and be taken up across classes. It was pointed out in the meeting that there was a need to have special focus on vocational education in the agriculture sector to increase farm productivity, a senior official said. According to the minutes of the meeting, the northeastern states have a high dropout rate, especially in government schools. More skill-related courses, relevant to these states, could be introduced in schools there.