Kerry Allen, curriculum director of AgriBusiness in Schools, has criticised the government for not including agribusiness in new curriculum changes to be phased in from 2028.

Education Minister Erica Stanford last week announced a raft of curriculum changes,  which she said recognised the importance of industry-led pathways.

Farmers Weekly reported that the changes for Year 11-13 include curriculum-based subjects around science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), enabling students to specialise in areas including Earth and space science, statistics and data science, and electronics and mechatronics.

Other new subjects include civics, politics and philosophy, media, journalism and communications, Te Mātai i te Ao Māori, Pacific studies and music technology.

But agribusiness, agriculture and horticulture science would not be standalone curriculum subjects and would only be taught as a vocational hands-on pathway from 2028.

RNZ reported the explanation from Pauline Cleaver of the Ministry of Education’s Curriculum Centre, who said students would continue to be able to study agriculture and horticulture in a skill-based way.

“As part of the work with the Industry Skills Boards, subjects within the primary industry area will be developed,” she said.

“This makes sure students are learning skills directly aligned with the needs of employers and tertiary providers. Meaning young people can come out of secondary schooling with a tertiary qualification.

“We’re still in the early stages of content development. We’ll be working with educators and subject matter associations to complete details and subject descriptions by mid-October.”

But Kerry Allen, who is head of the agribusiness department at St Paul’s Collegiate School in Hamilton and treasurer of the New Zealand Horticulture and Agriculture Teachers Association, told RNZ:

“We’ve been completely blindsided.

“While we were under the understanding that it may have changed at Level 1, for Ag and Hort Science may be incorporated with a general science, we had no inkling that it was going to be removed from Year 12 and 13 as an academic subject.

“So while we agree that a vocational pathway is a great pathway, it shouldn’t be the only pathway because there are those students that may not necessarily want to do a skills-based programme and may potentially want to go on into the industry with higher qualifications.”

Ms Allen told Farmers Weekly agribusiness is currently taught by achievement standards and unit standards, which are more vocational pathways, giving students the option for both.

Schools will offer these as a mix or sometimes one or the other.

“To remove the academic pathway I think is not allowing those type of students to now access that. They might not want to go down a vocational pathway, which is more hands-on practical skills.”

Farmers Weekly referenced data from the latest Situation and Outlook for the Primary Industries report released at this year’s Fieldays which shows the sector employed 360,000 people as of March 2023, or 12.4% of the New Zealand workforce.

Last year, nearly 3500 students went through the agribusiness programme and 20,000 students have gone through it over the past eight years.

There are 351 schools that teach ag and horticultural science either as a unit or achievement standard. Nearly 100,000 students were taught it in the past eight years and 11,000 last year.

“Not all of them will want to do a vocational pathway,” Ms Allen said.

Yesterday she discussed why she thinks this is a poor decision with RNZ’s Jesse Mulligan.

The interview can be heard HERE.