Our Reporter
Lagos State Government will on Monday, August 17, begin the 2020 Agricultural Youth Empowerment Scheme (Agric-YES) Summer School Programme for students of public Senior Secondary Schools across the six Education Districts in the State.
The State’s Acting Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya, disclosing this in Lagos today, noted that the two-week programme which was first implemented in 2011 is aimed at encouraging senior secondary school students to embrace agriculture as a life-long career after their secondary education.
“The Agric–YES Summer School Programme aims to serve as a ‘taster’ programme for students who may wish to pick up a career in the agricultural value chain in future and eventually fill the vacuum being created by the ageing farmers”, Olusanya asserted.
She recalled that the annual Agric-YES Summer School Programme usually held during the long vacation for SSII students who took Agricultural Science, as well as their Agricultural Science teachers who were drawn from the Education Districts across the State, explaining that the programme was designed to make students understand that agriculture, when well-managed, is a reputable and profitable business venture.
Olusanya said, “Due to the Coronavirus (COVID–19) pandemic and the need to discourage close physical interaction among students, teachers and other important stakeholders, this year’s Agric–YES Summer School Programme is taking place at the Lagos State Agricultural Development Authority, Oko-Oba, Agege. This arrangement shall replace the usual two-week residential on-farm Summer School Training within the Agric-YES premises in Araga, Epe”.
Assuring that the programme would not only stir up interest for Agriculture as a career in students, the Acting Commissioner stated that it would also serve as a refresher course for Agricultural Science teachers in the State.
She revealed that participants would be exposed to theoretical and practical areas usually covered by various invited facilitators and resource personnel in poultry production, fisheries, vegetable and crop production, agric business as well as climate change, among others.
“This programme aims to ensure that students excel in their Senior Secondary School examinations in Agriculture and eventually grow into a more productive labour force as adults, thereby solving to a reasonable extent the problem of unemployment and mitigating the possible effect of the global food crisis,” Olusanya said.
The two-week programme will end on Saturday, August 29, 2020.
