Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate professional education with special refer-ence to agriculture in the Punjab. An analysis of the data collected through a ques-tionnaire mailed to 100 randomly selected Agricultural Officers and all the Extra Assistant Directors of Agrialture of the area showed that a great majority of the respondents desired training in general administration. Majority of the respondents were in favour of practical training in agricultural engineering and plant protection equipment. All the respondents were eager to get training in handling and operating AN. Aids. Imparting training in administration, operating and handling farm ma-chinery and A.V. Aids were the most important suggestions given by the respon-dents.
INTRODUCTION
Despite hectic struggle by agricultural scientists our farmers have not yet been able to exploit the potential yields of various crops as reported by Shakir (1982). He ob-served that teaching methods like field demonstrations, farm and home visits and group meetings were categorized as the most effective methods by a great majority of the respondents. Average production of our crops is very low as compared to their yield potential. One of the major possible factors responsible for this situation may be lack of proper agricultural skills due to im-perfect training of professional workers in the field of agriculture as indicated by Za-man (1985). He pointed out that all the ex-tension workers felt the need for in-service training on continuing basis in order to en-hance their professional competencies and thus to strengthen the extension work,
Therefore, this study was undertaken to see the weaknesses of the programme and to make suitable recommendations for its fur-ther improvement.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study was conducted in the Punjab Province. One hundred Agricultural Officers were selected randomly alongwith all the Extra Assistant Directors of Agriculture (EADA) who were taken as the respondents for the study. A questionnaire was devel-oped and mailed to the respondents. Only 99 respondents responded. Of these, 14 were discarded due to wrong filling of the ques-tionnaire. Thus 85 professional workers were made the sample for this study. The data were analysed and interpreted using simple percentages.
