We, the undersigned, petition Canterbury College to offer Agricultural Science as an elective subject for year 11 students in 2021 and from years 7 to 12 in 2022 and beyond. 

Agriculture is already popular at Canterbury College, with strong year 9 and 10 class numbers and a substantial growth in numbers since 2019 when the subject was first offered. Canterbury currently offers other elective subjects with much smaller class sizes.

Students were told that Agricultural Science would not be offered at Year 11 due to a lack of staff and resources. Canterbury College has a fully qualified Agricultural Science teacher with extensive industry experience. The new Agricultural Science curriculum does not require any more resources than those needed to teach Biology, the subject that students were recommended to choose as a replacement for Agricultural Science. Many students would prefer to select Agricultural Science AND Biology as their science electives.

The Agricultural Science curriculum is cognitively equivalent to other science subjects and is a prerequisite subject for at least 2 university degrees. Canterbury offers other elective subjects which are not prerequisite subjects at all.

Management of Canterbury College should have provided at least 6 months and preferably 18 months notice of their intention not to offer Agricultural Science as a senior subject, since this subject has been the reason for some families joining the school.

It is crucial for the nation’s food security that we increase the number of students studying Agricultural Science at school to encourage more to continue in this field at university. Governments in Australia have identified agricultural education as a crucial area to support, evidenced by lowering of university fees in this field and the introduction of mandatory agricultural science units in all NSW secondary schools. Agricultural Science is a strong career path, with around 5-6 jobs currently on offer PER agricultural science graduate out of university. Agricultural science students are amongst the highest paid university graduates in Australia. Canterbury College also identifies Paddock to Plate as a key theme in the 2020 - 2023 World Ready Strategic Direction document.

We strongly feel that offering Agricultural Science at Canterbury College from Year 7 to 12 would not only provide students interested in biological sciences with an additional science subject they could enjoy, it would also attract new students to Canterbury College and bring more students into studying a science.

It would be a short-sighted mistake to remove Agricultural Science from Canterbury’s excellent selection of elective subjects, and in fact, it should be actively promoted within the school as a valuable career pathway and an academically challenging subject. As students, teachers, locals, industry representatives and fee-paying parents, we sign below to demand that Agricultural Science be offered to years 9, 10 and 11 in 2021 and to years 7 to 12 in 2022.