“27 thousand children are attending the Ministry of Agriculture’s schools, with 7,000 beginning their studies this year”, Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas said on Monday at the national school year launch ceremony for agrarian vocational training institutions at the Sándor Jávorka Agriculture and Food Industry Vocational College in Tata, South Transdanubia.
According to Mr. Fazekas, the establishment of the vocational agrarian training institution system means that students are now being taught agricultural, food industry and environmental professions in 59 schools under unified management. 2400 teachers and 1700 other staff work at the institutions which now fall under the sphere of authority of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The Minister pointed out that the institution system bore with it a financial burden totalling hundreds of millions of forints, which the Ministry has successfully put in order in recent months through efficient management and additional funding.
Mr. Fazekas stressed that the work of the unified agrarian vocational training institution system is helped by balanced management and a transparent system of regulations.
The vocational training institutions use 5450 hectares of state-owned land, including all kinds of farming from arable land to fishing lakes, and these practical training locations include a training hotel.
The objective of the Ministry of Agriculture is the infrastructural and substantive development of its new institutions and the development of the training farms that form the basis of practical training into complex training institutions that teach students about the whole verticum of agriculture from production and primary processing to distribution and marketing.
“In agriculture, in addition to food production, keeping processing and distribution in domestic hands is also an important national interest and is also in the interests of the sector’s participants”, Minister Fazekas said, noting that agriculture has set out on a growth trajectory and increasing numbers of people are working in the sector, which provides a good livelihood.
The Sándor Jávorka Agriculture and Food Industry Vocational College in Tata is the region’s only agrarian vocational training institution. It is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its founding this year and provides training to 440 students.