Page 114 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 1

CPS1178 D. S. Hooda et al.
Statisticians in Agricultural universities and institutions not only provide a
strong technical support to other departments and disciplines for agriculture
related programs but also conduct their own research in Statistics. In almost
all SAU’s, Statistics is taught as supporting subject and is compulsory for the
UG and PG programs irrespective of their discipline. Students also take
statistics as minor from departments such as Agricultural Economics.
In Agricultural Universities, the subject of Statistics is also taught as an
independent subject leading to the formal degrees of M.Sc. and Ph.D. in
Statistics. We observe that teaching Statistics to agricultural students is a
tough job and needs special attention. This is mainly because of the fact that
agricultural students are not well trained in mathematical concepts and face
difficulty in grasping the mathematical notions and the subject matter itself.
Also many students seem to have the feelings that Statistics courses are dry
and unattractive and consider Statistics it irrelevant to their own disciplines.
A teaching approach includes teaching tools or methods to be used in
teaching such as tutorials, illustrations, case studies, Audio-visual like
projectors or LCD’s etc. Use of audio visual aids would make the teaching more
enjoyable. Audio visual aids like an overhead projector, slide projector and
LCD’s can help in better presentation and condensing information from bulk
and thus provide more information in short time. But majority of SAU’s and
ICAR institutions lacks in such facilities.

3. Course Curriculum for Statistics Teaching Programs
All SAU’s and ICAR institutes having status of deemed universities have the
dual responsibilities of conducting research in agricultural Statistics and also
of running regular courses leading to the award of M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in
Statistics. In addition to the PG.-programme in Statistics, the Statistics
Departments in SAU,s are also involved in teaching of informal courses
designed to cater the needs of agricultural scientists. Despite similarity in
education system and objectives of SAU’s, we find considerable variation in
their course curriculum for M.Sc and Ph.D programs in Statistics. The course
curriculum is an important aspect for the success of any program of study and,
in view of the advancement in the subject, there is always a continuous need
for updating it. Past experience indicates that the job opportunities in
agricultural universities are declining day by day. The outgoing students from
SAU’s have to compete in examinations at the national level conducted by
agencies such as ASRB, UPSC, UGC etc. The syllabi for UPSC and UGC
examinations are generally formulated keeping in view the syllabi of
traditional universities and not the syllabus of M.Sc. Level programs taught in
Agricultural Statistics as these do not cover a significant portion of the syllabus
framed by national bodies like UGC and UPSC.

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