Lydia BiriwashaFAC Early Career Fellow

Title: Agriculture in the School Curriculum in Zimbabwe

Research Objectives

• To analyse how agriculture is taught and portrayed in primary and secondary schools in rural Zimbabwe, and

• To explore the impact of this exposure on young people’s perception of agriculture as a career and livelihood choice.

Research question

• How does the Curriculum shape or relate to young people’s aspirations and expectations?

Methodology• Interviewed 40 primary and secondary school

pupils in Mutare district

• Framings and narratives

• Analysed the primary and sec Agric syllabus

• Visited MoE, CDU and ARC

Primary school Syllabus• Agriculture is offered under a broad subject called

Environmental Science.• The aims and objectives cover health, environmental

& agricultural issues.• Agriculture and farming are not directly treated in this

syllabus – the philosophy behind this is probably that one has to understand their environment and be able to take good care of it first.

• A few agricultural topics are highlighted in the syllabus which include: water, soil, grazing, crops and animals.

Secondary school syllabus• Presented in three documents for: Junior, Ordinary

and Advanced levels.• Agriculture is presented as a source of livelihood that

can lead to personal & community development.• Pupils are exposed to theory & practice.• Only schools assessed by the MoE as being equipped

to offer the course of practical work both in the laboratories and in the field can offer Agriculture.

• The syllabus touch on: General Agric, Crop Husbandry, Livestock Husbandry, Farm & Machinery and Agric Economics.

‘Reading’ Agriculture in Primary & secondary school text bks

• Agric experiments can be done by anyone despite their gender.

• Manure, old & rotten grass, and other decomposable material – portray agriculture as unpleasant & dirty work.

• Extension workers have a meeting but women are not present.

• Simple and low-tech machines & tools – agriculture work is laborious, boring and unsophisticated.

• Machinery such as tractors and harvesters are only operated by men.

Findings• Interviews with 40 pupils in five primary and

secondary schools reviewed that:• Agriculture is presented as a profession for men not

women (85% - 34) • Agriculture in schools is perceived as forced labour &

laborious. (96% - 38)• 8 out of 10 head teachers reported having difficulties

finding agriculture teachers.• There were no primary text books in the 5 schools

visited – the teachers relied on secondary level text books.

Conclusions• Agriculture is primarily about looking after the

environment as opposed to an exciting, modern livelihood or career choice.

• Agriculture is presented as unsophisticated and backward.

• Agriculture is presented as a ‘career’ for men. • The lack of teaching staff plays a role in creating

different attitudes in pupils’ interest for agriculture.