ACT is pushing to keep agriculture as a Year 11 subject after a final curriculum decision limited it to Years 12 and 13.

ACT Agriculture Spokesperson Andrew Hoggard says he wrote to the minister after teachers raised concerns, but the decision landed last week without Year 11.

“The end result is it’s pretty disappointing that there seems to be a number of things around education that impacts on rural New Zealand,” he says.

Hoggard says rural school bus rules are another example, with some children barred from a bus that stops at their gate because it serves a special character school.

“So a 50-seater bus has got 11 students in it when we could all just put them in that one bus.”

CountryWide CONNECT with Andy Thompson & Sarah Perriam-Lampp is our daily rural show livestreamed from 11am-1pm. Visit country-wide.co.nz on how to watch/listen or download the CountryWide CONNECT mobile app, available on Apple iOS and Android.

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