“See agriculture as a viable option.”
This appeal was made by Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Kay McConney, at the relaunch of a greenhouse at Harrison College (HC), on Tuesday.
Commending HC’s Environmental Club for its involvement in the effort, Ms. McConney declared there were opportunities for the greenhouse to be “integrated across many different subjects in the school’s curriculum”.
Noting there were also career opportunities linked to agriculture, she listed these as in bio-processing, engineering, designing equipment and occupations in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
“Agriculture is not just about food; agriculture is also about biology. It is about chemistry; it is about nutrition. It is about food security; it is about business; it is about all the ways in which we can integrate agriculture,” she stressed, adding the greenhouse signalled the island was “doing the right thing at this time”.
The Education Minister disclosed that 13 public secondary schools offer agricultural science or related disciplines and produce crops on small plots of land or in greenhouses. Two of these schools also offer programmes in land-based fish farming or aquaculture.
She noted that over the last 11 years, through the Summer Youth Farm Programme, some 300 students were trained and certified in either amenity horticulture, crop production, livestock rearing, or fish farming.
“This is a summer initiative where the Ministry of Education has partnered with the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Council and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation for Agriculture to help encourage students to see agriculture as a viable career option,” Ms. McConney said.
Further describing the reopening as timely, the Education Minister stressed that it came at a time when the world was struggling with food security and sustainability issues.
“Food security in this context is really a measure of our ability to access food that is nutritious and sufficient in quantity which also meets the food preferences and dietary needs for active and healthy lifestyles…. The United Nations Global Issues on Food states that food security and nutritional status of the most vulnerable population is likely to deteriorate further due to health and socio-economic impacts of the post-pandemic period. It also noted that the world is in a very different place to where it was six years ago when it committed to the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition by the year 2030.
“This will only happen if … we put very specific programmes and projects in place that give authentic experiences to people who are seeking to make a difference and when we speak about authentic experiences and authentic learning…this is when you do it in real life…where students don’t only read and learn about [it] but that they get to actively participate and be a part of what we are seeking to create as a nation,” Ms. McConney stated.
Meanwhile, principal of HC, Juanita Wade, noted that while it was expected that the departments of chemistry, biology and physics would make the most use of the opportunities provided by the greenhouse, the school anticipates opportunities would be forthcoming for the Business Department to get involved in packaging and marketing.