Author/s: Joseph A. Kwarteng and Samuel Akuamoah Boateng
Edition: Volume 52, Number 2, July 2012
Summary: One of the major challenges facing Africa today is ensuring that extension practitioners are well trained to enable them function effectively as facilitators of change at the farmers’ level. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a mid-career B. Sc. Agricultural Extension Curriculum in meeting the educational needs of mid-career extension agents. The study was descriptive and used a validated questionnaire to collect data from 30 purposively selected graduates of the program. The study revealed that 66.7% were aged between 40–49 years, and 93.3% had at least 10 years of working experience before entering the program. The graduates considered their competencies at the start of the program to be below average in all but 6 of the 25 courses offered under the program. After going through the program, all the graduates had attained competencies that were rated from high to very high. Improvement in academic status, knowledge and skills in the human relations as well as technical areas in agriculture, and attitude to work, were perceived as the major benefits of the program. The effectiveness of the program in meeting the needs of the graduates was attributed to the availability of appropriate facilities a the conducive environment for the teaching-learning process, availability of adequate and competent lecturers, committed and supportive administrative staff, balanced curriculum and a well- planned and supervised field component of the program known as the supervised enterprise projects (SEPs).
Keywords: graduate perceptions, agriculture, Africa, extension, curriculum
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 52_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.