Vocational Education Vs Practical Education

The term practical agriculture is an umbrella word, that holds “practical” and “Agriculture”, these words has been defined as one by the Tokyo University of Agriculture Journal (2001) as the fundamental principle of returning man to the farm. It has also been seen as the act and practices of the various agricultural activities. According to Awuku et al (1991) practical is the “art “is the doing aspect and consists of the skills acquired and used by those engaged in some form of agricultural activity.

In another view, Okorie (2001) defined practical agriculture as education that encompasses farming and agro-allied business organizations including others involved services and sales in agriculture. This definition buttresses the meaning of

Boateng (2012) is of the view that the challenge facing vocational education is perceived to be a route for those who are not able to function within an academic setting. Most students who are at schools which offer Technical and Vocational Education subjects tend to regard this area of education as the alternative for those who do not have the academic ability to cope with traditional education even though in some cases that Technical and Vocational Education maybe best suited for them because they are good at it. It is in this way that practical Agriculture has a negative impact on students. According to Salazar (2012) practical Agriculture does not attract students because they do not see that it leads to good jobs. They may prefer general education even when there is high unemployment of graduates and when businesses find it hard to fill vacancies in technical occupations. Most of the students do not want to be in the technical field at secondary school even though they more than often past the

This is evident based upon a research conducted by the Jamaican Gleaner (2012) which posits that 83 per cent of students said their teachers contributed to their level of motivation.

Using the advantage provided by that influence, the development of new attitudes towards Technical and Vocational Education by teachers could go a far way in redefining students' perceptions and career choices. The fact that such a large number of students say their teachers contribute to their level of motivation means that the attitude of teachers to Technical and Vocational Education is likely to have a significant impact on students' attitude towards Agriculture and, thus, their openness to considering careers in the field. According to (Jacob J.J. Ochieng’ Konyango 2014) Vocational Education is still regarded as second-class education and as being reserved only for those students who are less academically competent. They further stated that such perceptions may be partially rooted in the traditional or cultural bias towards academic