L'enseignement de l'économie correspond-il aux besoins de l'agriculture au niveau de l'enseignement technique agricole ?

Technical agricultural education aims more and more to form future farmers. It is strongly influenced by the desire to form farmers' children. With the presently dominant education conceptions which stress the acquisition of knowledge in the student's memory, these two objectives are in contradiction because they lead to a surcharge of the teaching programs. A new conception stressing intellectual autonomy, i.e. the ability to analyze a situation could permit one to resolve this contradiction and to change the nature of the dilemna general formation versus technical formation. With such a conception, it is the spirit rather than the content of economic teaching which matters. The employment market gives a first idea of the adequation of teaching to the needs of the society. The « short cycle » graduates (15-16 years old) find little more than unskilled jobs outside of agriculture. By contrast « long cycle » graduates (18-19 years old) and « superior technicians » (20-22 years old) will probably continue to find employment. Their formation fulfill a need. Yet a study of the teaching programs and of te examinations subjects in agricultural economics indicates that, in spite of recent changes, the main emphasis is still placed on the acquisition of knowledge and not on the ability to analyze concrete situations.