As part of efforts to reintroduce agricultural science to students and pupils in a more practical way, the Agricultural Educational Training Programme, AETP, has been flagged off for select pilot schools across Anambra State.
The AETP initiative is organized by the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC in collaboration with Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board ( ASUBEB), and the flag-off took place at the Utility Hall of ASUBEB in Awka, with Head Teachers, Principals and other education stakeholders as participants.
The training saw practical sessions on various aspects of agricultural practices which include, Crop farming, poultry farming and fishery farming with the participants getting answers to questions on some grey areas.
In her keynote address, the Executive Chairman, Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, ASUBEB Awka, Ass. Prof. Vera Nkiru Nwadinobi explained that the AETP initiative is aimed at making agricultural science more practical-oriented, providing requisite skills and inspiring entrepreneurial interest in learners at the Basic Education level.
“You know what Mr Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo is doing in the state agricultural sector through the provision of palm and coconut seedlings to households across the state, to open channels of income when they start fruiting.
“These strides and numerous others show that the governor is not joking with issues of agriculture because he wants to end poverty through it.
“This programme wouldn’t have been possible if the governor did not approve the state’s counterpart funding for it. As a matter of fact, he cleared three three-year backlog for this programme to happen.
“So, Mr Solution has come to make Anambra a liveable and prosperous state, where people will live, work and enjoy,” she said.
Nwadinobi urged the participants who are head teachers and principals to step the training down to their various schools, so that children can uptake agriculture as an interest, advocating the introduction of an agricultural quiz at the schools to further elicit the children’s interest in the matter.
“The idea is to capture the children early and imbue them with interest in agricultural activities, which will lead them through later in life.
“It will also equip the learners with functional entrepreneurship knowledge and life skills, as well as promote the dignity of labour among the learners, to de-emphasize the uncontrolled quests for quick wealth, prevalent among youths today,” the ASUBEB boss posited.
In her address, the Director, the Department of Academic Services, Mrs Ngozi Enendu, revealed that the pilot schools for the programme will be starting with crop farming, poultry and fishery.
She said; “The leaners are expected to be actively involved from the beginning of the project, to the harvest period. The enterprise part of the AETP ensures that money realized from the proceeds is re-invested for continuity of the project in the schools.”
Earlier in an opening remark, the ASUBEB Agric Desk Officer, Mrs Kate Oguejiofor pointed out that the school-to-farm initiative focuses on introducing pupils and students in primary and junior secondary schools, to the practical aspects of agriculture and to inculcate in them the desire to make farming a source of livelihood.
The Board Secretary, Mrs Loveline Mgbemena, Board member 1, Hon Ifeyinwa Anatune, Board member 3, Lady Theresa Azodo, Director Quality Assurance Department, Lady Stella Ezepue, Officers – Charge of 21 LGEA’s among others attended the training programme.
