Is It Right to Involve Students in Picking Cotton?

Baku / 11.10.18 / Turan: Over 100 students of the agronomic faculty of the Azerbaijan State Agricultural University are involved in cotton harvest this year.

On the university's Facebook page, it is noted that "students will thus increase their theoretical knowledge, and also be able to earn money at the rate of 20 kopecks per 1 kg of harvested cotton."

"Students who are attracted every Saturday to picking cotton, talk about the all-round benefits of this," the university says.

The expert of the Center for Economic Research, Vahid Maharramli, considers the involvement of students in agricultural work a return to the practice of the Soviet past. He considers the argument that participation in cotton picking enhances students' theoretical knowledge is untenable, because there is no possibility for this. Increasing knowledge would be the case if students participated in the whole process - from sowing seeds to growing cotton. Then it would be necessary to attract students to field practice also in spring and summer. Now, in the fields, you only need to harvest, and this is hard physical labor, which is really nothing more than the exploitation of young people.

Maharramli believes the teachers of the University should appeal to the leadership of the country, saying that they train agronomists, and not cotton growers. In Soviet times, students of almost all universities were attracted to the harvest of cotton and grapes.

"Unfortunately, this trend continues today. On the other hand, attracting students to physical work without entering into labor contracts is against the law," the expert concluded. -06D--