An Investigation into Competencies of High School Teachers Teaching Agriculture in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ and K)

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJandK) is a state territory of Pakistan; it is located at the foot hills of the Himalayas, North East of Pakistan, between longitude 70 o -75 o and latitude 33 o -35 o .The AJandK large population around 80% lives in rural areas and they are dependents on agriculture directly or indirectly.The government of AJandK has started agricultural education program for the students at the school level.The current study was carried out to examine and evaluate agriculture teachers' competencies levels that are teaching agriculture subject at school level in different parts of the state.For this purpose, 250 agriculture teachers were selected from ten districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir by using sampling technique and wellstructured interview schedule of 5-point likert scale was prepared in light of the study objectives.In addition, SPSS software V. 20.0 was used to analyze the research data.Principal Component Analysis (PCA) test was conducted to overcome the multidimensionality and multicollinearity issues in the data to produce valuable components.Results showed that among teaching competencies, 15 variables were analyzed through PCA and five components were extracted.In these components "job management" explained 19.48% variance; four variables of teaching methodological competency were loaded on "job management" component which means that agriculture school teachers possessed high level of competency in job management.Likewise, Technical skill explained 18.05% variance has the second position in possessed competencies and job evaluation explained 11.44% variance, it has third position in possessed teaching methodological competencies.Similarly, all these five components explained 67% of variance in data set of teaching methodological competencies.PCA analysis also showed that high age, more service length and diploma holder category of agriculture school teachers has negative significant correlation with teaching methodological competencies.It is concluded that the AJandK education department may positively be considered Refresher courses and new teaching staff in the agriculture education system of education department.