Developing Education Strategies to Ignite Agricultural Interests Among Bruneian Youth

The focus of this study is to analyse the current efforts to promote agricultural education in schools and higher institutions in Brunei Darussalam. Therefore, this research aims to achieve two main objectives: to analyse the current efforts to develop agricultural education in Brunei; and the challenges in efforts to develop agricultural education in Brunei. This paper uses both current literature review and focus group discussions methods with respective organisations to examine the current efforts and challenges they are facing. The results obtained revealed that the efforts have been put in place, however, the lack of teachers to teach agriculture subjects is the main hindrance that needs to be tackled and requires immediate solutions. This is because agriculture subjects to be offered depend on the availability of teachers with an agriculture background. These results indicate that it is important to offer agriculture at the Bachelor’s Degree level so that more agriculture graduates can be produced and absorbed to be teachers. At the same time, this will also show that there is a prospect for students who are interested in taking up agriculture which will trigger their passion. However, it is also acknowledged that agriculture has been embedded in the curriculum from primary to university level. The present study contributes to existing literature that human resource, i.e. teachers, plays an important role in promoting agriculture education development, particularly in Brunei Darussalam.