AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION FOR WOMEN

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2681, 29 January 1916, Page 11

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION FOR WOMEN

IMPORTANT. DEVELOPMENTS. Some twelve months ago the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries of Great Britain referred. to the Agricultural Education Conference tho duty of reporting on "the provision made in England and Wales for tho agricultural education of female students of sixteen years and upwards, and to report whether existing facdities are sufficient, and, if not, to what extent and in what direction these should be developed and improved." At last the recommendations and the report are forthcoming, and jlre well worthy of the attention of the women in this community. The following are the recommendations of the.conference: — 1. Itinerant instruction should take the form of organised classes rather than that of lectures, and every part of a county should be covered in a definite cycle of years. 2. Farm schools, or fixed courses ol instruction taking their place, should be increased, so as to provide one for every county or two counties. 3. That at one' or more of the existing agricultural colleges a systematic long course for women should be in- [ stitutcd, covering all branches of agricultural work (practical and scientific). 4. Provision of scholarships: (a) from itinerant classes to farm schools; (b) from farm schools to collegiate institutions; (c) for the daughters of larger farmers and professional men desirous of obtaining instructions at the collegiate centres referred to in 3, and at universities. 5. Domestic economy should form part of the curriculum in every organised course. . 6., (a) The formation at one of tho oxisting agricultural colleges of a training course for poultry teachers; (b) tho institution of a national examination in poultry in connection with the above. 7. (a) The addition to the county committees of agricultural education of at least two woman membors; (b) tho employment by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries of a woman on' inspection work. 8. Division of student attendances between- the sexes in the statistics published by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries.

9. A voluntary system of registration for private giving instruction in horticulture, eto.

10. The encouragement of the creation of "Women's Institutes," with a view to stimulating a desire for rural education.