FARM EDUCATION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 28 August 1924, Page 5

FARM EDUCATION.

SUGGESTION FOR NEW ZEALAND

EXAMPLE OF DENMARK.

(By Telegraph—Special to the Star.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 27. The departmental report refers to the high importance of instruction in agriculture and to the constant demand for more complete courses of this character. It states that the Department fully recognises the value of a sound and thorough training in agriculture, and that a much larger proportion of our boys should be attracted to and trained in this fundamentally important occupation in the Dominion. In secondary and technical high schools courses of study in elementary agriculture may be commenced, but even here it is advisable to confine attention largely to the scientific basis of agriculture and to such studies as plant and animal life, soil, atmosphere, and such conditions as will enable the youth later on to profit fully by the course of practical direct instruction in farming. Denmark has what may be described as the most fully developed system of agricultural training in the world, and its results certainly are remarkable, for in probably no country in the world is the worker in agriculture so highly trained or has he such a high standing as in Denmark. Yet we find it laid down as an important and fundamental policy that no direct instructions in agriculture shall be given before the age of 15 years. It is therefore suggested by the report that in New Zealand, if boys pass through the junior high school course from the age of twelve to fifteen or sixteen years and receive a general education, with due regard to nature study and science in relation to agriculture as well as to the general forms of handwork, they could then, most profitably proceed to work either on a farm or at a farm school, such as Government farms at Eualcura or Weraroa. Then after two years or so of practical experience they could take up a more thorough study of agriculture. The report adds that in Denmark the boys are apprenticed to farmers after they leave school just as they would be in connection with any other occupation.