The study aimed at assessing the relevance of the Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education (BSAEd) Program to the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) of the Department of Education. Specifically, the study looked into the profile, employability and productivity of graduates, and institutional profile of the Agricultural Education program.

The study used the normative, evaluative and correlational under the descriptive method to gather the needed data from 67 respondents who were selected through total enumeration. A structured survey questionnaire supplemented by personal interviews and secondary data were employed to collect the needed information which were treated statistically by means of frequency counts, percentages, means, ranks, Pearson r, and Point Biserial Correlation Coefficient. The null hypotheses were tested using 0.05 level of significance serving as reference whether to reject or to accept the hypothesis.

The findings revealed that the average age of the respondents is 26.29 years old, 75.32 percent were females with an average grade point of 2.62, and 63.6 percent of them specialized in crop science while 76.7 percent of the respondents took the Licensure Examination for Teacher but only 23.2 percent passed the examination.

Of the total respondents only 42.8 percent landed jobs, of this number, 24 percent were hired as teachers, while a greater number of the employed graduates (45%) received an income ranging from P5, 000.00 to 19,999.00.

On faculty profile, 44 percent of the faculty members were in their 60-65 years old, 56 percent of them were female, 66 percent were doctoral degree holders, 55 percent holds an associate professor rank, 44 percent had an academic experience ranging from 21-30 years and 100 percent had a performance rating of very satisfactory.

The average enrollment of the program per school year was 149, and the average LET performance per year is only 23 percent. The program is awarded Level II accreditation status by the AACCUP.

Following are problems encountered by BSAEd graduates rank in order: "Not a LET passer", "The course or degree is irrelevant" and "There are no local job opportunities".

Gender and GPA were found to be significantly related to employability. On the other hand, age, specialization and LET rating are not significantly related to the respondents' employability

In the light of the foregoing findings, the following conclusions were drawn The Respondents' Profile of the department has an average age of 26.29, mostly females, with a grade point average of 2.62, they specialized in Crop Science, and greater percentage took the Licensure Examination for Teachers but very few passed it. A greater percentage of the graduates were unemployed and most of the employed graduates landed on non-teaching jobs. While those employed receive an income below the standard hiring rate both in public and private schools. Most of the faculty are old and retirables, majority are females, two-thirds are doctoral degree holders with an academic rank of associate professor, had been teaching from 2-3 decades and all had a very satisfactory ratings. Faculty-student ratio on enrollment is very far below the standard class size. The Agricultural Education program is awarded Level II by the AACCUP LET performance of the department in below the national passing rate. The curriculum has very limited options for field of specialization. Most of the graduates' problem is on "Not a LET passer" in getting a job. The male graduates had better opportunity of being employed than the female. The graduates with lower GPA tend to have better chances of being employed in non-teaching jobs as they are not as selective as those with higher GPA. The chance of being employed is not affected by the respondents' age, specialization and LET rating

From the results of this study, the researcher recommends the following: The College of Teacher Education must enforce stricter policy on student admission in selecting the best students to become future teachers. The College of Teacher Education must strictly enforce the administration of comprehensive examination to all third year education students as part of the selective retention policy issued by the Commission on Higher Education. There should be a thorough review of the BSAEd curriculum to be able to satisfy the provision of the Basic Education Curriculum of the Department of Education so that graduates of this program will be more competitive for employment especially in the areas of specialization. The enrollment of the program must justify its existence. Since eligibility is one of the qualification standards in the selection of applicants for employment, BSAEd graduates should take the LET examination and be well prepared for the examination, and Replication study is encouraged to validate the current findings which will include other variables like attending LET review or not, honors received both high school and college, economic and educational status of parent, involvement in both extra and intra-curricular activities, and to be conducted in a wider scope.

Thesis (Master of Science - Agricultural Education)

Includes appendices and bibliographical references